Will playing a mono LP hurt my stereo stylus?

lokerola

AK Subscriber
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As the title says, will playing a mono LP in any damage or hurt my stereo stylus?

Thanks AK.
 
Not at all! Don't worry about that. Your stereo cart can handle mono LPs!

Thanks!

I found a thread over at steve hoffman forums and went down the stero/mono rabbit hole - who knew there was so much to know? Well, you guys probably did. But I didn't. Off to play my mono LP's on my stereo set-up
 
Thanks!

I found a thread over at steve hoffman forums and went down the stero/mono rabbit hole - who knew there was so much to know? Well, you guys probably did. But I didn't. Off to play my mono LP's on my stereo set-up

Yeah, go right ahead and enjoy!:music:
 
For a time early LPs, which all were mono, had 1 mil wide grooves, not .7 mil wide grooves which were used for stereophonic LPs, which were introduced around 1957-58. Stereo LPs in those days had warnings on them NOT to play them with mono needles (which were too wide and could damage the grooves). New stereo record players, of course came with stereo cartridges sporting the correct width needle. But if you had an old portable record player and wanted to play the same stereo record on it too, you had to upgrade at least the stylus or the stylus and the cartridge if that was easier. Once you had a stereo cartridge/needle you could still play any of the old wider grooved mono LPs you had. The slightly narrower needle for stereo LPs would not damage the wider-grooved mono LPs. Soon mono LPs were pressed with the narrower groove used for stereo. Only very early mono LPs have the wider groove. Of course ALL LPs (and 45 rpm singles) are considered "micro-groove" recordings, because most of (not all) the earlier 78rpm records had grooves about 3 times wider.

There were several years when stereo was available but a lot of people still only had mono equipment and records. What if you just bought a new phonograph the year before stereo came out? Most people then, less indoctrinated in the throw-away society, weren't going to just throw something like that out. Also, for several years, stereo versions of the same recording could cost as much as twice as much as the mono version. Some people couldn't afford it. Also, there were some people who thought that stereo was just a fad that would pass. They waited until it had been around quite a while before getting on board.

There are other differences between the mono and stereo recordings, but so far as groove width issues go this is the gist of it, unless I got the units wrong or something like that. I'm sure someone will correct anything essential I left out. One other thing, needles for the wider early mono LP groove are available still for some cartridges. Some audiophiles prefer to play those records with the stylus width intended for them.
 
No it will not damage your stylus. When I listen to mono through I put pre amp on mono mode, don't know if that makes it sound better but what the hell.

Yea, no mono mode on my new Yamaha A-S801, so stereo it is. The album does sound pretty good, but there's a bit more "noise" than I'm used to on my other LP's. It could be the record itself; needs a glue cleaning!
 
Thanks!

I found a thread over at steve hoffman forums and went down the stero/mono rabbit hole - who knew there was so much to know? Well, you guys probably did. But I didn't. Off to play my mono LP's on my stereo set-up
Many of my mono albums are relatively new; that is, new enough to include information on them about their use on stereo players. The comforting thing is the sure knowledge, gleaned from the album jacket itself, that the mono version is fully compatible with stereo systems, and that, in fact, "played on a stereophonic machine, it gives even more brilliant true-to-life fidelity."
 
I don't know how other programs work, but with Polderbits, you can record a less than perfect mono recording in "mono" mode, and it will remove a lot of the imperfections since it uses the signal that's common to the 2 stereo channels (I hope I'm making sense). It doesn't just choose "right" or "left," but it's sort of a "center" option I'd guess you'd say. I've had mono records I've picked up on the cheap that were pretty awful come out fairly clean recording them on my computer with Polderbits.
 
I don't know how other programs work, but with Polderbits, you can record a less than perfect mono recording in "mono" mode, and it will remove a lot of the imperfections since it uses the signal that's common to the 2 stereo channels (I hope I'm making sense). It doesn't just choose "right" or "left," but it's sort of a "center" option I'd guess you'd say. I've had mono records I've picked up on the cheap that were pretty awful come out fairly clean recording them on my computer with Polderbits.

http://www.vinylrecorder.com/stereo.html

This is a cool illustration of how the grooves work. I don't remember all the details of how the summing/subtracting is done, but basically if you play a mono record with a stereo cart, you get two versions of the mono signal (one on each channel). Somehow they can be summed in a way that cancels out at least some of the noise which is common to both.
 
OK I couldn't help working on this to refresh my memory.

On a stereo record with a V groove, one channel on each wall, and both horiz and vertical motion of the stylus:

The horizontal motion of the stylus gives the sum of the L and R channels: H = L+R
The vertical motion of the stylus is the difference: V = L-R (or R-L, doesn't really matter as you'll see).

A stereo cart simply has two sensors, one detecting vertical motion, the other horizontal.

If you sum those two signals, H + V = L+R+L-R = 2L that gives you the left channel.
Take the difference, H - V = L+R-L+R = 2R and that's the right channel.

This is done in the phono preamp (I assume).

Now, a mono record is only going to have horizontal motion in its grooves. If you put a stereo cartridge on it, then V = 0. If you run that through the same summing in a stereo preamp, the math gives you "L+R", in other words an identical signal, on both channels. As you might expect.

As for noise reduction, here's where my knowledge reaches its limit. I suppose if you played a mono record with a stereo cart and subtracted the two channels coming out of the stereo cart, you would get zero, except for noise that is not common to both sides. Now if you took that noise and subtracted it from the L+R (total music + noise) signal, noise reduction might result. Guesswork at this point. Ronald1973's description above about processing a certain way reducing noise is probably something along these lines I would guess.
 
Well yes and no ... All "V" grooves have both horizontal and vertical, it's the nature of a V. True Mono cartridges only sense horizontal motion. The vertical is irrelevant. With a stereo cartridge, that disregarded motion comes across as noise. So old Mono tracks sounds "cruddy". And many stereo cartridge are sporting pretty small styli, so the also tend to "Bottom Drag" and that adds even more noise ...

You prolly won't hurt a stereo cartridge/styli - they can be pretty tough. But you will not get the sounds you are after. You should at least have one cartridge set up with a fat (by modern standard) conical stylus to play old mono albums :)
 
Good point. I should get one of those myself. I already have a Shure M78S for 78s, but it's not right for mono LPs.
 
http://www.vinylrecorder.com/stereo.html

This is a cool illustration of how the grooves work. I don't remember all the details of how the summing/subtracting is done, but basically if you play a mono record with a stereo cart, you get two versions of the mono signal (one on each channel). Somehow they can be summed in a way that cancels out at least some of the noise which is common to both.
Though *slightly* off topic, the "mono" function in Polderbits will also do a decent job of fixing "electronic stereo" into mono. It might not sound as good as the original mono pressing, but it works really well with Columbia LP's that were done that way. It seems, at least around here, you find more "reprocessed stereo" than you do true mono on the Columbia label.
 
I don't know how other programs work, but with Polderbits, you can record a less than perfect mono recording in "mono" mode, and it will remove a lot of the imperfections since it uses the signal that's common to the 2 stereo channels (I hope I'm making sense). It doesn't just choose "right" or "left," but it's sort of a "center" option I'd guess you'd say. I've had mono records I've picked up on the cheap that were pretty awful come out fairly clean recording them on my computer with Polderbits.
I used to use Polderbits software years ago. I had to wipe my HD and reload the OS and all my software, and when I went to get a new product key from Polderbits because the old one no longer worked, I found that they were no longer around!:mad: I didn't even have it very long, so that money went down the toilet.:rant: I know you can still download the program, but as far as I'm aware, it's useless after the trial period expires. It's not really much of a loss, though. It was easy to edit with, but it had very few features, and it's noise removal tools SUCKED compared to other programs such as Goldwave, Click Repair, and even Audacity.
 
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