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Vinyl lovers--in case you haven't tried this yet

One advantage to being home sick with the flu, is that I get to spend time with recent purchases. This week I have finally installed my Lyra Helikon Mono cartridge, cleaned a bunch of old mono recordings and WOW, I am shocked at the warmth, clarity, natural, intimate sound. Perhaps many of you know this already (I bought the cartridge slightly used from a friend, after reading a glowing review by Fremer), but folks this is shockingly good sound. I put on some old Shaded Dogs, mono Archiv recordings of Bach, and frankly, I don't understand this: how can there be a wide, deep soundstage with mono recordings? I'm not missing whatever Stereo does (don't get me wrong, I'm not dumping that side of things), but would someone explain to me how a good mono recording, played with a good mono cartridge, can sound so alive, natural, and present. (As I write this I'm listening to a wonderful Alicia de la Laroccha which I picked up for a buck at Amoeba. ) If you haven't tried this yet, it's worth a listen.
Joe
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Showing 2 responses by inpepinnovations1e75

inpepinnovations1e75
395 posts
 
When I get the flu, my hearing gets so affected that I don't trust any differences in any sounds that I hear! In other words, when I have the flu, everything is mono and sounds worse - sometimes only one channel works - one ear is blocked. Have you tried your experiment when healthy? You might get different results.
Bob P.
inpepinnovations1e75
395 posts
 
It is precisely that 'air' introduced by playing a mono disc in stereo that is the reason that vinyl is preferred to CD play. That 'air' is also due (beside the noise)to the phase difference between the channels that is introduced into the vinyl playback rendering it 'better' than the CD. Does anyone claim that mono playback of stereo vinyl is superior to mono CD?
Bob P.
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