Have I Gone Mad?

ivan100000

Active Member
Gentlemen:

I have been partial to mono records dating back to my college days in the late 1980s, when famously--amongst my friends at the time, at least--I decreed half-seriously that "stereo" is all a marketing scam. (Remember that in the 1980s, mono=bad.) On record hunts my friends would jokingly taunt me, "Oh look...here is a mint copy of Sam & Dave's Soul Men LP on Stax--too bad it's an inferior stereo copy." To which I would shrug and offer that it just meant more great mono records for me.

At any rate, I have had a dedicated mono system set up in the cave for a few years now that's fun as hell, with the only wrinkle being the original Shure M3D in the Garrard Type A headshell that I have connected via y-adaptor to my mono receiver. I say "wrinkle" because while my original mono LPs sound exactly as I imagine them to have sounded 50+ years ago, I have always wondered if the rolled-off high end is a product of summing the channels together. Many on the internet who seem to understand the physics of it much better than I do agree that while summing stereo channels together generally approximates mono, it does in fact cancel out some of the information from the grooves of the vinyl.

I'm generally on the lo-fi side, but it has bugged me for years that I may only be enjoying merely 99 1/2% of the mono experience: I've got to have 100. When I came across an NOS General Electric VR II with .7 mil/1 mil styli for $72, I had to pull the trigger. As the M3D is mounted and aligned in the headshell I'm not inclined to mess with it, and thus I am in the market for another Garrard headshell to accommodate the GE VR II that is on its way to papa. (Side note: can anyone confirm that the older, brown bakelite 3-prong mono Garrard headshells will in fact work with the Type A model?)

I think found an old-timer who will shim up/install the GE VR II for me, so I will only have to adjust the tracking force and then cue up some mono LPs and settle into my postwar, 3-tone naugahyde sofa. When the dust settles and all is said & done, will my listening experience be at all enhanced? Will the expense and the aggravation be justified? Have I gone mad?
 
I cannot confirm nor deny that the 3 prong will mate to a Type A arm. I have a Type A and was looking at those while looking for a spare head shell.
I just recall thinking the prongs won't mate up.
As far as you being crazy mad - I don't think anyone that owns a beautiful "Ice Cream" plinthed Garrard Type A is the least bit out of their mind at all. Quite the contrary!
I've said it before and I'll say it again: That's one fantastic looking piece of Garrard gear you have:thumbsup:!
 
I cannot confirm nor deny that the 3 prong will mate to a Type A arm. I have a Type A and was looking at those while looking for a spare head shell.
I just recall thinking the prongs won't mate up.
As far as you being crazy mad - I don't think anyone that owns a beautiful "Ice Cream" plinthed Garrard Type A is the least bit out of their mind at all. Quite the contrary!
I've said it before and I'll say it again: That's one fantastic looking piece of Garrard gear you have:thumbsup:!

Hello Dosmalo--

Just came across this while scouring the internet. De facto proof that it can be done...?

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Hello Beatcomber--

Thanks for your generous offer. It is coming to my attention that while the RC88 headshell is very close in length to the Type A, the angle is different and it will not track correctly. There does seem to exist a brown Type A headshell, though evidently not very common. I think that will look better with the red thumbwheel popping through it than the white. At some point one of those will turn up.

Thank you once again.
 
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