Columbia "High Fidelity" Pressings - Mono or Stereo?

tlarwa

Vinyl Lover
I have a number of late '50's and early '60's jazz titles that only say "High Fidelity" on the cover and label. Nowhere do they indicate whether they are recorded in mono or stereo. How do I know? Some other labels have titles pressed in both stereo and mono, and they will list the number for each. Anyone?
 
on those listing both Mono and Stereo, one merely checks which serial number is on the album cover. If nothing is mentioned, assume them to be Mono, as Stereo was greatly trumpeted when first available.
 
As a rule, Columbia mono releases have a CL prefix, i.e. CL 1690, and stereo releases have a CS prefix. There are other prefixes but, asw far as I know, any time there's an L as the last letter, it's mono and any time the last letter is an S it's stereo.

John
 
Last edited:
As a rule, Columbia mono releases have a CL prefix, i.e. CL 1690, and stereo releases have a CS prefix. There are other prefixes but, asw far as I know, any time there's an L as the last letter, it's mono and any time the last letter is an S it's stereo.

John

I was going to ask about the record number prefixes. Also, the very first stereo LPs often had printed cautions about playing them with a needle made for stereo. While stereo was "trumpeted," as has been noted, stereo records often cost substantially more: like $1.50 above the mono platter's price, when McDonalds hamburger cost 15 cents. Record ads on paper record sleeves, and some album cover backs, often showed clearly if a recording was available in both mono and stereo--the different record suffix scheme is often shown clearly on those inserts.
 
"High Fidelity" is midcentury marketing lingo for "mono" (unless it says stereo somewhere).

Glad to hear that, Beatcomber. I was under (my own) impression that I owned quite a few mono jazz titles ... that's why I set up my AR XA as a mono table with the Shure cartridge and stylus. I was starting to get disappointed when the only titles I could find in my collection that were clearly marked mono were my Pet Sounds album (which is excellent in mono, by the way) and some Tony Bennett and Sinatra albums!
 
When early stereo records first came out, they were a novelty, and cost $1 more than 'regular records'.

Of course, they had 'STEREO!!!' written all over them in giant letters, if they could have had flashing lights they would have done it. So if a pre-1965 record doesn't say stereo, then it's mono.
 
Stereo was enough of a sell point back then that you'd know if it was stereo. There would be markings on the record and the cover for it.
 
Hi Fi usually means mono, but with extended range, many of the recording companies had all kinds of fancy names for a wider frequency range than what was commonly used. But the introduction of extended frequency ranges was also a break thru that listeners were introduced to just prior to the 2 channel introduction. Personally given the two, the full frequency range was more of a major improvement to me than the 2nd channel.
 
Back
Top Bottom