EXPLAINED: Mono vs Stereo Records

today we're talking about the differences between mono and stereo records [Music] hey friends welcome back so if you've been collecting records for a while you've probably noticed a few mono records here and there but what exactly is a mono record and how does it compare to a stereo record today we're gonna find out but real quick today's song of the day is strawberry fields forever by the Beatles and if you have suggestion for a song of the day as well post in the comments down below and you could see it in a future video alright so let's start from the beginning Mon aural sound or mono for short is sound that only uses one audio channel and is meant to be played from only one position for example a gramophone from 1904 with one horn or a radio from 1938 with one speaker so as you can tell from these two examples mono has been around since the earliest days of recorded sound everything from the wax cylinders of the 1890s to the shellac records of the 1940s used mono but then during the 1950s stereo sound was introduced to the world and stereo uses two separate audio channels and is meant to be played with two speakers so now we have a sound that's much more three-dimensional because we can pan from right to left or vice versa and we can place the drums on the Left speaker the vocals in the middle and the guitar solo on the right speaker so now we've got some options and also a much wider soundstage to play around with whereas with mono we had to shove everything into one speaker so basically this is why mono was phased out in the 1970s and eventually replaced with stereo and stereo has been the gold standard ever since I mean even our hearing is stereo we have two ears so getting back to vinyl during the early 1960s there were many bands that release their music in both formats these bands included the Beatles the rascals The Doors the Beach Boys Bob Dylan the Rolling Stones Miles Davis John Coltrane Roy Orbison Simon & Garfunkel and Jimi Hendrix however by the end of that decade everything was being pressed in stereo and because of that shift all of our modern turntable cartridges receivers and speakers of today are made for stereo as well so basically any record pressed after 1970 can be played with your current setup but what about those earlier records can we play those well it depends if we're talking about the older shellac records of the 1940s yes we can play those but with a special stylus something like the great O 78 II or the order Fon to M 78 but the real question here is can we play mono vinyl records with our current setup and the answer is yes you absolutely can however it will sound even better with a mono cartridge let me explain so if you have a stereo cartridge like the order Fon to M red blue black or bronze or the Audio Technica 1895 II or a TV M 95 Yi then you can already play mono records because all stereo cartridges are backwards compatible with mono records so stereo can do both but mono cartridges can only play mono so you may be wondering if stereo does both why do I even need a mono cartridge well according to mark Henshaw from your sound matters.com playing a mono record with a stereo cartridge will work but it's gonna have some issues with crosstalk out of phase noise tracking errors and it will not produce the same audio signal in both channels so essentially it's not true mono it's fake mono a mono wannabe but if you have a dedicated mono cartridge it eliminates those problems and produces only one signal at the same level in both speakers thereby giving us true mono and we don't even have to unplug any speakers just swap out the cartridge and you're good to go so if you are thinking about picking up some mono records and you want a high quality mono cartridge to go with them or to fajn makes one called the 2 m mono which does give you that true ma signal in both speakers so I'll put a link to in the video description down below if you want to check it out for yourself now another question you may have is which one sounds better mono or stereo well although stereo has a wider soundstage when it comes to the sound quality the number of audio channels doesn't really matter what does matter is how the music was recorded mixed and mastered in the first place if they used a busted microphone it'll sound terrible in both formats so it's kind of a moot point but as I just mentioned if you have a mono record and you want the best sound you should be playing it with a mono cartridge now another interesting fact about mono grooves is that they only go side to side which is one channel whereas stereo grooves go side to side and up and down so essentially that's how stereo is able to reproduce two channels in one groove does that make sense I feel like I'm making this really complicated but to be fair this is a complicated subject alright so last of all the only record I currently own that's in mono is a 10-inch vinyl EP of BB Kings the thrill is gone which was released on Record Store Day of 2015 so side a is in mono and side B is in stereo so it's a pretty unique record and I've also been able to play it with my stereo cartridge and it does sound pretty good but that being said if down the road I start collecting a lot more records in mono I might just have to pick up a dedicated mono cartridge so I can hear the difference for myself now what do you guys think about mono records do you like them do you own a lot of them do you have a mono cartridge or do you prefer stereo let me know down in the comments below and if you love vinyl as much as I do be sure to subscribe and hit the bell notifications so you won't miss out on the new videos and most importantly of all friends have a great day stay safe out there and keep spending that vinyl also this is a great song

Channel: Vinyl Eyezz

Views: 115,178

Keywords: record players, record player, records, turntable, turntables, crosley, crosley cruiser, audio technica, vinyl eyezz, phono, preamp, receiver, vinyl audio, Vinyl Eyezz, Record Players, vinyl setup, vinyl, lp120xusb, lp60x, phono input, turntablelab, turntable lab, best turntables, mono, stereo, mono record, mono records, mono cartridge, mono sound, beatles mono, mono vs stereo, what is mono, stereo cartridge, stylus, needle, record needle

Id: WN22vFE0sEA

Length: 6min 38sec (398 seconds)

Published: Fri May 08 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Anaveragedrummer]

Bro i’ll pass on mono. Had to deal with that disease last year. Don’t know why people want it 🤔

[u/HonkyTonkDownstairs]

Did he really need over six minutes to explain this?

[u/Milo_Minderbinding]

Why does everything always have to be so black and white with him?

[u/constructicon00]

I don't follow this guy but apparently if he had his way everything would be white.

[u/Eightcoins8]

Can be answered in 2 minutes, but of course has to be almost 7 for that SWEET SWEET ad revenue

[u/JerryThePolishMouse]

What's the point explaining that NOW, when the Beatles mono records went out of print?

[u/supersonic767]

I love the black album