Mono or Stereo - One speaker or Two?
ambiophonics
Posts: 726
Hey Guys,
So some friends and I have been discussing mono recordings vs. stereo recordings, most notably artists that released the same album in both stereo and mono. One friend brought up the new Beatles box set which is available in stereo and mono (special edition). He said that much of the Beatles music was mixed and mastered in mono and that listening to it that way would be closest to the way they intended their music to be heard.
Anyway, I agree with that argument but would like to take it a step further. I think that mono music should be listened to on a single speaker. If we introduce a second speaker we have to start dealing with crosstalk between the two speakers causing all sorts of acoustic anomalies.
When I listen to music at work I almost always listen in mono from a single speaker. That way when I move around the shop I don't have to deal with these issues. When I add a second speaker the bass/mid bass starts to sound bloated and inaccurate and I feel like I lose overall resolution as a result.
I?d love to hear some of your opinions on this subject?
So some friends and I have been discussing mono recordings vs. stereo recordings, most notably artists that released the same album in both stereo and mono. One friend brought up the new Beatles box set which is available in stereo and mono (special edition). He said that much of the Beatles music was mixed and mastered in mono and that listening to it that way would be closest to the way they intended their music to be heard.
Anyway, I agree with that argument but would like to take it a step further. I think that mono music should be listened to on a single speaker. If we introduce a second speaker we have to start dealing with crosstalk between the two speakers causing all sorts of acoustic anomalies.
When I listen to music at work I almost always listen in mono from a single speaker. That way when I move around the shop I don't have to deal with these issues. When I add a second speaker the bass/mid bass starts to sound bloated and inaccurate and I feel like I lose overall resolution as a result.
I?d love to hear some of your opinions on this subject?
2 Channel - Polk SDA-2BTL, Carver TFM-35, Peachtree iDAC, Qobuz streamed via Episode Lynk using bubble UPnP server
Post edited by ambiophonics on
Comments
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One speaker is the ideal way to go for a dedicated, true mono setup (IMO).
EDIT: oh, and ideally it should be something like this...
http://www.hifilit.com/hifilit/Electro-Voice/patricianIV-1.jpg
... or, at least, like one of these...
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When my nice FM tuners can't properly multiplex a weak FM signal, they convert to mono mode and sound extremely good with normally spaced stereo speakers.
I also have numerous 7-1/2" Reel to Reel tapes, many of them Beatles, that sound great through my normally space stereo speakers.
As good as it sounds, I listen to mono perhaps 1 hour out of every 200 total hours of listening so I personally would never design around it.
If I did listen to mono almost exclusively, I would position stereo speakers very closely together.VTL ST50 w/mods / RCA6L6GC / TlfnknECC801S
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I saw one of those in person a couple of months ago, in great shape too! AudioClassics has it for sale IIRC.mhardy6647 wrote: »One speaker is the ideal way to go for a dedicated, true mono setup (IMO).
EDIT: oh, and ideally it should be something like this..."He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." Friedrich Nietzsche -
I love the look of that EV 4-way speaker! Perhaps I should look into stacking my old pair of DQ10's...
2 Channel - Polk SDA-2BTL, Carver TFM-35, Peachtree iDAC, Qobuz streamed via Episode Lynk using bubble UPnP server -
Later Patricians are more - modern - looking; not quite so... umm... patrician :-)
Later Patricians (some models) also featured the (in)famous 30" EV woofer.
An amusing Patrician story. Many years ago, John Dorsey of Soundscape in Baltimore and I were talking about them. I noted that the Patrician was my father's favorite speaker. He said he remembered hearing a pair and being blown away by them at a show. Part-way through the demo, the rep apologized and stopped the demo, having realized that the highfalutin' stereo setup was being demoed in mono... according to John, it only got better in stereo.
