MONOmaniacal advice requested vinyl question

John, I know that Grado makes some nice mono cartridges too. You might want to check into that. I just bought their 78C mono cartridge exclusively for playing 78 rpm records, and I'm very pleased with its performance and low cost. I believe they have models for playing micro-groove mono LPs, as well.

If you want to track the groove as intended, you need a true mono cartridge and probably a separate turntable system dedicated to that purpose. If you're just going to sum the stereo channels electronically, then you only need one tt setup and a preamp with a mono switch; but that's not quite the same thing, is it?

Best regards,
Frank :)

John, Musical Surroundings can order many of the Benz line of cartridges in true mono configuration.

They are built to order and are true mono. A friend of mine had a H2 built and it was spectacular, even on old 45 RPM rock records from the 1950’s.

Here you go - now that's MONOlithic!

http://shopping.netledger.com/s.nl/c.ACCT106601/sc.2/category.377/it.A/id.355/.f

Have a good one,
Mark

With not a lot of funds, the Helikon is probably out of reach. If you could do it Plato's way it would be nice. But I could afford another setup for only for my 78s, where the cartrige is critical. So I am happy just buying more mono LPs until my ship comes in with a new table set up and I retro my current to a Helikon.

I have never heard a high quality mono cartridge, but I would like to. (I think Ortofon lists a mono stylus for their OM series cartridges--they also have a 78 stylus for these cartridges.) I found Shure 78E stereo stylus at a yard sale. I asked on the Audioasylum why stereo for 78's, and the answer I received from someone was that often one channel will sound much cleaner than the other. (Having a old school pre-amp that allows each channel input to output to both channels is needed for this of course.) This of course is more of an issue with noisy 78's than with mono lp's, but it is consideration. I have a Citation 1 preamp with all the switching and filter slopes one should need for all record playback, but it needs work so I haven't tried it yet.

thanks for the responses. i infer from the above that the different physical characteristics of the vinyl LP preclude any compensation an otherwise dedicated stereo setup would offer to maximize fidelity. it's great to know that the benz line can be ordered in mono--i owned and thoroughly enjoyed it prior to succumbing to the "allure of the exotic" in trying the allaerts. i own a moerch dp-6, so i can definitely aspire someday to a separate arm wand with a dedicated mono cartridge, using the same rig.

Here's one last one for you:

http://www.audionut.com/pk4/store.pl?section=12&start=8

Cheers,
Mark