watchnerd
Grand Contributor
So I got my first mono cartridge set up this week, an Audio Technica AT33 Mono. It's not sold in the US for some dumb reason, so I had to have it imported from Germany.
It's a modern "true mono" cartridge (meaning it's stereo LP safe because the cantilever can move vertically, although it won't generate any signal from that, unlike vintage mono carts which aren't stereo safe). The internal wiring looks like this:
Basically, two separate mono coils.
Additionally, my amp has the following settings:
1. Stereo
2. Mono (sum the channels)
3. Left (to both speakers)
4. Right (to both speakers)
I've been playing modern mono reissues of Blue Note jazz and all the settings sound good, but they do sound subtlely different.
Stereo sounds, well, more 'stereo' than 'mono' (how can this be? it's a mono cart?)
Left sounds slightly different from Right (manufacturing tolerances? anti-skate? azimuth? but it's a conical cart....).
So since they all sound subjectively good, but different, which one is the most correct way to listen to a mono record using a mono cart?
It's a modern "true mono" cartridge (meaning it's stereo LP safe because the cantilever can move vertically, although it won't generate any signal from that, unlike vintage mono carts which aren't stereo safe). The internal wiring looks like this:
Basically, two separate mono coils.
Additionally, my amp has the following settings:
1. Stereo
2. Mono (sum the channels)
3. Left (to both speakers)
4. Right (to both speakers)
I've been playing modern mono reissues of Blue Note jazz and all the settings sound good, but they do sound subtlely different.
Stereo sounds, well, more 'stereo' than 'mono' (how can this be? it's a mono cart?)
Left sounds slightly different from Right (manufacturing tolerances? anti-skate? azimuth? but it's a conical cart....).
So since they all sound subjectively good, but different, which one is the most correct way to listen to a mono record using a mono cart?