Marine0811
I love it loud!
Welcome to AK!
looking for an amplifier for mono vinyls. Any help?
- Thread starter RodrigoLanes
- Start date
mhardy6647
Lunatic Member
As an aside, there's mono and then there's mono.
In the pre-stereo LP days, mono records (masters) were cut on lathes with zero vertical modulation. A "true"/vintage mono cartridge would (probably) have zero vertical compliance -- and consequently wouldn't be a good thing to use on a stereo LP!
There's another, slightly more subtle issue. Earlier LPs had 1 mil groove width, by the stereo era this morphed to 0.7 mil. "Modern" mono LP records were (probably) cut using stereo cutting heads (fed a mono signal) and have 0.7 mil grooves. Earlier (ca. pre-1958) LPs are mono (more or less by definition), have no vertical modulation at all to their grooves and may or may not have 1 mil grooves.
this looked like a decent synopsis (I didn't dig too deep):
https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?t=21390
78s are a different kettle of fish altogether -- and I don't know squat 'bout vintage 45s
In the pre-stereo LP days, mono records (masters) were cut on lathes with zero vertical modulation. A "true"/vintage mono cartridge would (probably) have zero vertical compliance -- and consequently wouldn't be a good thing to use on a stereo LP!
There's another, slightly more subtle issue. Earlier LPs had 1 mil groove width, by the stereo era this morphed to 0.7 mil. "Modern" mono LP records were (probably) cut using stereo cutting heads (fed a mono signal) and have 0.7 mil grooves. Earlier (ca. pre-1958) LPs are mono (more or less by definition), have no vertical modulation at all to their grooves and may or may not have 1 mil grooves.
this looked like a decent synopsis (I didn't dig too deep):
https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?t=21390
78s are a different kettle of fish altogether -- and I don't know squat 'bout vintage 45s
likebike23
Addicted Member
Are you looking for a single speaker mono setup to play your mono records or are you just looking for a stereo amp with a mono switch. If it's the former then you need to consider the turntable setup. As previously mentioned, the cartridge/stylus selection needs to be considered. You can always run a stereo cart/stylus that has been strapped.
Welcome to AudioKarma. Miida made some good equipment. Since your amplifier has a mono/stereo option, you may want to consider having it repaired. On the other hand, if you are looking for a stand alone monophonic system, I would second the recommendation of others for the EICO HF-12.
Teej
Active Member
Firstly, any record deck will play any vinyl record (provided that it can run at the required speed of course - not many 78RPM TTs about), through any mono or stereo sound system. With playback through a stereo system the sound should centre itself as both channels are playing an identical signal.
O.K. That's the basics done with. Please don't jump out of your chair when you read the next bit.
A lot of (old) mono recordings were recorded on equipment which was of lower quality and had limited bandwidth compared with that used today. There seemed to be a significant step change (anecdotal) around 1970 in general recording quality. I have sometimes found that when playing old 50s and 60s records on modern high quality equipment the resultant sound is awful. This I believe, is due to this mismatch in definition. Play an old record on a Dansette portable record player (remember them?) and it sounds great, probably because it has a large sapphire stylus and limited bandwidth so you don't get to hear all the extraneous noise. The record grooves also tended to be deeper and wider than with more modern recordings. Consequently, the modern fine stylus is effectively wallowing about in a trench. How will that sound?
I think that a previous comment about using a conical stylus may have some validity for similar reasons.
Buy old kit from the 50s and 60s to play these records and you won't be disappointed.
O.K. That's the basics done with. Please don't jump out of your chair when you read the next bit.
A lot of (old) mono recordings were recorded on equipment which was of lower quality and had limited bandwidth compared with that used today. There seemed to be a significant step change (anecdotal) around 1970 in general recording quality. I have sometimes found that when playing old 50s and 60s records on modern high quality equipment the resultant sound is awful. This I believe, is due to this mismatch in definition. Play an old record on a Dansette portable record player (remember them?) and it sounds great, probably because it has a large sapphire stylus and limited bandwidth so you don't get to hear all the extraneous noise. The record grooves also tended to be deeper and wider than with more modern recordings. Consequently, the modern fine stylus is effectively wallowing about in a trench. How will that sound?
I think that a previous comment about using a conical stylus may have some validity for similar reasons.
Buy old kit from the 50s and 60s to play these records and you won't be disappointed.
