I've got mono.

[mikeweil]

1 hour ago, Dmitry said:

Well, I set up the Grado Me+ late yesterday night, and had time to play just 2 mono albums -

Song For My Father, BLP 4185, New York USA  - right away noticed less surface noise than with the stereo cartridge. 

The Modern Jazz Quartet, PRLP 160, 10" original from 1953 - there's no magic, record wear from a heavy 1950s needle can't be reversed.

Like porcy62 said, the mono cartridge seems to track the grooves better than the stereo. I noticed that on the much more dynamic Horace Silver album. I'll do some fine tuning tonight.

[porcy62]

BTW it seems to me that even the more recent mono reissues sounds better with my mono cartridge, and my mono is less expensive by far then stereo. And sometimes I play stereo LPs with mono and it’s fun.

[mikeweil]

1 hour ago, porcy62 said:

BTW it seems to me that even the more recent mono reissues sounds better with my mono cartridge, and my mono is less expensive by far then stereo. And sometimes I play stereo LPs with mono and it’s fun.

Without damage to the smaller stereo grooves?

I have some Japanese reissues cut with mono grooves, and it works fine with them, but these are marked on the label. Most may sound mono but are cut for stereo cartridges.

Notice the mono signb in this Japanse reissue:

[porcy62]

Don’t think it may damage recent reissue. The weight is on average and the stylus is a spherical one, anyway I didn’t notice any problems. It might be that some esoteric mono cartridge damages stereo records but I haven’t notice about it.

[EveryMann]

I have a dedicated mono setup (Fisher 500 receiver from the late 50s, KLH Six speaker, red/white/gray Garrard Type A table) and I have a GE VRII Broadcast mono cartridge. Listening to my Blue Note and black label Atlantic LPs, I am transported back to 1961.

 

[Dmitry]

Nice place, EveryMann. That took some yard-saling to decorate! 

I've been playing some of my original and NY USA BN monos with the Grado, and again, the background noise is palpably diminished vs. the stereo cartridge. It's really quite amazing with some of these records, which look they way they should sound - beat up, but the mono cartridge pulls out so much music from these grooves! 

[EveryMann]

Hello Dmitry, and thanks.

A big part of what I love about mono--just as you point out--is that my $10 bargain-bin Horace Silver records that look only so-so sound like a million bucks!