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A new player in the quality Mono cartridge game

For awhile there, if you wanted a mono cart to get the most out your new mono Beatles collection, other mono reissues, or vintage mono LPs, there were the budget offerings from Grado, a big price gap, and then the more expensive good stuff. The elliptical mono Grado goes for around $150.

But now the Audio Technica AT MONO3/LP, a HOMC, is available in the US. The link goes to the official importer, LpGear, who prices this $299.99 cart at $189.99. However, I also found that this cart is available from Amazon for $112.65. Worried that the unofficial import puts your purchase at risk? For a mere $12 extra you can buy a 2-year protection warranty.

I ordered mine via Amazon Prime on Sat. Oct. 24 and it arrived today.

This thing is NICE! 1.2mV output, which is plenty, conical stylus (don't know if it's nude or not, but it *sounds* nude), tracking force range 1.5-2.5g. I'm breaking mine in at around 2g.

Even fresh out of the box, this cart's a revelation. I started with "Within You Without You" from the new Beatles Mono vinyl reissue. It's really something when you play a mono record with a cartridge that produces no signal in the vertical plane. The noise floor drops down to the indiscernible. In fact, even cueing the needle makes very little sound thru the speakers.

Everything on Sgt. Pepper's sounded richer, lusher, more distinct, more dynamic, with great treble extension and no hint of sibilance. I followed it with Analogue Productions' 3-LP 45 rpm remaster of Nat King Cole's "After Midnight." Fan-TASTIC! I thought Nat was in the room before, but the dynamics, transparency, and truth-in-timbre reached a height I hadn't heard on my rig up to now.

I finished my mini-audition with a *real* mono record, an original mono Columbia Masterworks pressing of "Grand Canyon Suite" performed by Eugene Ormandy and The Phily Phil. Again, smoother, quieter, more dynamics. It showed its age a little bit, but I think I could bring this 55-yr-old record close to the reissues with a steam cleaning. Even without it it was very satisfying.

Folks, if you have nothing but the new Beatles mono reissues and have an easy way to switch cartridges or set up a mono rig, this cart is so worth it.

Right now I have around 13 Beatles mono LPs, two Beach Boys reissues, the Nat King Cole, some old Columbia Masterworks and shaded dog Orthophonics, mono reissues of Prestige and Miles Davis LPs, and some mono pressings of '60s pop.

I'm thinking of separating all my mono vinyl into its own shelf so--when I mount the AT Mono3 LP--I don't have to sort through my entire collection to play the compatible LPs.

BTW, if you decide to go after this cartridge, make sure you get the AT MONO3/LP cartridge, which is for mono LPS, and *NOT* the AT MONO3/SP cartridge, which is for 78s.
johnnyb53

Showing 3 responses by bdp24

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,408 posts
 
A great discussion, Lewm and Johnnyb. There is one playback scenario not mentioned, the one I use. I have a fair number of 50's and early-to-mid 60's mono LP's, and in addition to my main pre-amp I have been using one (ARC LS-1) with a mode switch having the following settings: Stereo, (Stereo) Reverse, Mono, Left (channel only), and Right (ditto). Using a stereo cartridge, a mono LP can be played with the mode switch set to not only Mono, but also to Left or Right, whereupon that channel's input signal will be fed to both the left and right outputs of the pre. Switching between them allows one to compare the two groove walls! The best sounding wall can then be the one listened to.

I also listen to early stereo LP's (particularly Beach Boys and Beatles) via the Left and Right inputs separately, to hear the extreme left/right panning on those records, with the instruments in one channel and vocals in the other. Many of the early Beach Boys albums were not offered in true stereo, but in Duosonic (mono reprocessed fake stereo). The two channels of Duosonic LP's can be compared, to hear the processing (frequency and phase differences added to the original dual mono channels).

A cartridge of particular interest for the playing of mono LP's, I believe, is the Decca/London, because of it's sum-and-difference design. The cartridge produces a L+R signal and a L-R one, to attain stereo. How that can be exploited for mono LP's I don't know.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,408 posts
 
"$1000 Quicksilver". Right Lewm, and an ARC LS-1 (the last ARC line stage to include a Mode switch, I believe) can be had for even less. I send mine the signal from the tape out jacks on my main pre, and send the LS-1's output (main, not tape, as the Mode switch is after the tape output jacks in the circuit) back to an input on the main pre, to listen to Mono. Sometimes!
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,408 posts
 
Speaking of Art Dudley, and the "mono-ness" of the Decca cartridge (as I did above), Dudley talks about that in his review of the Decca Maroon (the entry-level model) in his column in the current (December) issue of Stereophile.
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