Am I totally nuts or just a bit off?


A few weeks ago I came across about a hundred old mono pop jazz albums from the fifties in storage I had forgotten about.
Had some extended(3am extended) listening sessions using a Shure M78 S(sperical) tracking a little over 2 gms on my trusty Sony PS-X7 .

Sure seemed to me that mono was way cool especially in the LOW listening fatigue factor. Going on a Goodwill road trip next week-LOL,

Tell me again, why was stereo invented?
schubert
Viridian- I played 3 records that have been in heavy rotation(oh, that Dakota Satanton)the sound is much fuller and with more detail, must be getting all of that groove!
I did't notice any damage, just less surface noise.

That whole 91ED family must be the greatest buy of all-time in audio.First real table I ever bought was an AR XA that came with one. 45 TT's and twice as many carts later I should have just stopped there, have just as good sound and I'd be 30K richer .

Al, thanks for the class, even at age 78 I got a lot to learn LOL.
Imagine: If the internet had been around in the late 50s everyone would have been discussing how stereo and Solid State was ruining HiFi and young people- a conspiracy by music shops to make us buy two of everything.
I had an Uncle that was into HiFi. That must be how I was influenced during my formative years... He had a stereo console in the 60s and moved up to a Pioneer Quadraphonic receiver in the 70s with a Dual tt. So extrapolating speaker count from a single in the 50s to two speakers in the 60s and 4 speakers in the 70s, we should be up to 64 speaker systems today. Let's see, if my uncle were still alive today, I could show him my 7.1HT system that is mostly for the kids. Hey, that HT system has 20 drivers when I add them all up. I guess the speaker marketing guru's have been pretty successful after all over the decades.
Yrs ago I was at a flea market on the Ohio/PA border. I bought a stereo copy of Ellington's 'Indigos' from one dealer and a mono copy from another (SCORE!;)! I always preferred the mono version. Later on I read that they're actually 2 different recordings as Duke decided to re-record it in stereo. Hmmm, haven't played them back-to-back since I got them, and always leaned towards the mono, think it's time to re-visit!;)
Tonywinsc, by your own calculation, you're 44 drivers behind schedule! ;-)

I was once ahead of it. Back in 1973 I had 18 drivers in my 2-ch setup... a pair of Bose 901s. In those days, Bose was pushing 901 owners to add a second pair, facing outward toward the side walls. They were advocating a surround field (from just two channels) decades before multi-channel became popular.

Of course the phase confusion from even two 901s was pretty awful. They were pleasant, midrangy speakers with a huge sound field, but very muddy. I can just imagine how murky four of them would have sounded. I'm now down to 10 drivers for 2 channel, and they're all facing the right direction!

For a mono source, Jeff Catalano's single channel amplification and speaker must sound sublime. Wish I'd heard that.
Schubert,

Just wanted to point out that OHM Walsh speaker sound quality has been refined considerably over the last 20 years or so since the Walsh 2s and 2XOs, keeping up with overall "higher end" speaker technology and sound quality quite well in general and for very attractive cost. All models sound similar and size and cost needed depends mainly on room size and need/desire for full extended bass accordingly. Definitely something to keep in mind for anyone looking for good full range sound on a modest budget. And those mono recordings to die for.....