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A new player in the quality Mono cartridge game

For awhile there, if you wanted a mono cart to get the most out your new mono Beatles collection, other mono reissues, or vintage mono LPs, there were the budget offerings from Grado, a big price gap, and then the more expensive good stuff. The elliptical mono Grado goes for around $150.

But now the Audio Technica AT MONO3/LP, a HOMC, is available in the US. The link goes to the official importer, LpGear, who prices this $299.99 cart at $189.99. However, I also found that this cart is available from Amazon for $112.65. Worried that the unofficial import puts your purchase at risk? For a mere $12 extra you can buy a 2-year protection warranty.

I ordered mine via Amazon Prime on Sat. Oct. 24 and it arrived today.

This thing is NICE! 1.2mV output, which is plenty, conical stylus (don't know if it's nude or not, but it *sounds* nude), tracking force range 1.5-2.5g. I'm breaking mine in at around 2g.

Even fresh out of the box, this cart's a revelation. I started with "Within You Without You" from the new Beatles Mono vinyl reissue. It's really something when you play a mono record with a cartridge that produces no signal in the vertical plane. The noise floor drops down to the indiscernible. In fact, even cueing the needle makes very little sound thru the speakers.

Everything on Sgt. Pepper's sounded richer, lusher, more distinct, more dynamic, with great treble extension and no hint of sibilance. I followed it with Analogue Productions' 3-LP 45 rpm remaster of Nat King Cole's "After Midnight." Fan-TASTIC! I thought Nat was in the room before, but the dynamics, transparency, and truth-in-timbre reached a height I hadn't heard on my rig up to now.

I finished my mini-audition with a *real* mono record, an original mono Columbia Masterworks pressing of "Grand Canyon Suite" performed by Eugene Ormandy and The Phily Phil. Again, smoother, quieter, more dynamics. It showed its age a little bit, but I think I could bring this 55-yr-old record close to the reissues with a steam cleaning. Even without it it was very satisfying.

Folks, if you have nothing but the new Beatles mono reissues and have an easy way to switch cartridges or set up a mono rig, this cart is so worth it.

Right now I have around 13 Beatles mono LPs, two Beach Boys reissues, the Nat King Cole, some old Columbia Masterworks and shaded dog Orthophonics, mono reissues of Prestige and Miles Davis LPs, and some mono pressings of '60s pop.

I'm thinking of separating all my mono vinyl into its own shelf so--when I mount the AT Mono3 LP--I don't have to sort through my entire collection to play the compatible LPs.

BTW, if you decide to go after this cartridge, make sure you get the AT MONO3/LP cartridge, which is for mono LPS, and *NOT* the AT MONO3/SP cartridge, which is for 78s.
johnnyb53
johnnyb53 OP
3,490 posts
 
When I first got a Japanese stereo pressing of Rubber Soul, I *wished* I had
a mono switch. It was never intended to be a stereo record, but in the US,
Capitol knew that *stereo* sold. So they keept the 2 recording tracks
separate, instruments in one, voices in the other. Much worse than John and
Paul hard right, George and Ringo hard left.

However, Lewm, a mono switch doesn't replicate *all* the advantages that a
mono cartridge does. Because there's no vertical signal in a mono cartridge
(at least the ones I know of such as my new Audio Technica and the Grados),
the noise floor is cut in half, even for modern mono reissues.

I've found that vintage mono records benefit even more from a mono
cartridge. I recently pulled out some real '50s and '60s mono pressings--Ella
Fitzgerald singing Gershwin, Righteous Brothers, and Fischer-Dieskau
singing Brahms. With a stereo cartridge they were too noisy, the Fischer-
Diskau especially so. With the mono cartridge all those same records were
quiet and very enjoyable.

A mono switch with a stereo cartridge won't fix that.
lewm
6,770 posts
 
Dear Johnny, I enjoy these discussions, but its frustrating if you don't read my posts. For the third time, most modern "mono" cartridges are internally stereo cartridges wherein the two channels are bridged in order to produce a mono signal (identical signals in each channel) at the output. Such a cartridge WILL respond to vertical movement of the stylus tip. Since, on a mono LP, there is no music encoded in the vertical direction, any noise generated by vertical motion is, hopefully, cancelled at the outputs of the cartridge, to produce the benefits of mono playback. The exact same thing happens inside a linestage with a mono switch, if you use a stereo cartridge to play a mono LP. The only question is which method sounds better, and I suspect the answer to that question has a lot to do with what mono vs stereo cartridges one is comparing whilst playing a mono LP.

Of course, as I also wrote above, there are a few mono cartridges that are truly mono, have only one channel from input to output. In such a case, the results may be more in favor of using a mono cartridge, but I really cannot say.
fleib
1,124 posts
 
Whoa, I lost track of this thread and there's some misinformation here.
*Modern mono pressings are pressed like stereo pressings--horizontal modulations for one channel, vertical modulations for the other channel.*

Modern mono pressings are microgroove with groove walls at 45°. Unlike a stereo pressing, each groove wall is a mirror image of the other.
With this in mind it's easy to see the advantage a mono cart has in playing such records. With a stereo cart there are output differences between channels which should be identical playing a mono record. A mono switch will blend these differences, not eliminate them. Any alignment, azimuth, anti-skate etc. imbalance will smear the signal.

Elimination of vertical noise is a great advantage with a mono cart as Johnnyb says. This can be dramatic with some older or beat up records. For microgroove mono you will have a similar advantage with advanced profile tips as with stereo. Ortofon, Lyra, Soundsmith make some mono carts with extended contact tips.

Conventional MM/MI, manipulate the connection of the coils to eliminate vertical output. MCs do so with the orientation of the coils and armature. According to AT, the MONO3 and 33 have identical construction style which results in 30dB of vertical rejection @ 1KHz.
AFAIK AT never made a mono MM.

The microgroove was invented in 1948 and adopted mostly through the '50s. Pre microgroove pressings from the early '50s or before might sound better with a 1 mil stylus. LpGear still has the Ortofon OM D25M with 1 mil tip. I've never used it, but Ortofon has it listed in their historical data as lateral output. You might be able to use other OM styli as well.
johnnyb53 OP
3,490 posts
 
11-02-15: Lewm
To repeat, many if not most modern mono cartridges are internally
constructed as stereo cartridges, except that the outputs of the two
channels are summed prior to exit. Such cartridges will likely be responding
to vertical modulation imparted by the record grooves.
Do you know this for a fact, or are you guessing?

Many mono carts are NOT just summed channel stereo carts. My mono
cartridge makes NO vertical sound. NADA. It is dead quiet on a needle drop
where I can get a pretty loud THUMP with a stereo cartridge. If it were
summing two channels it would still make a big sound on a needle drop.

The mono output goes out to both speakers because its single signal, picked
up by a single coil and magnet, is split to go to both channels.

In fact, there's another advantage to a real mono cartridge--lower moving
mass. I think that's how this Audio Technica can put out 1.2mV and yet be
more detailed and sensitive than my Denon DL-160, a stereo HOMC.

What I've said about this Audio Technica cartridge is also true of the low
cost mono Grados--$90 for the conical model, $150 for the elliptical. The
suspension allows horizontal and vertical movement, but that is simply for
record safety. There are no mangets or coils to pick up the vertical
movement and then killed downstream. It is a mono cartridge with an
internal splitter to send the signal to both channels. That is why it's devoid of
phasing issues and the noise level is cut at least in half. And also why a
mono switch on a preamp won't do the same thing.
lewm
6,770 posts
 
Fleib, I am not sure I follow your argument to the point where I can agree that using a "modern" mono cartridge is inherently superior to using a mono switch on the linestage, to reproduce mono LP sound. But further, I was remiss in not clarifying that the mono LPs I had in mind would be very late in the mono era and/or modern re-issues of pressings that were originally mono. There are long discussions on various threads about how these are created, but I was assuming they are typically consonant with playback by modern cartridges (because they demonstrably are). I was not trying to take into account early mono LPs where indeed the groove width was different, etc. That adds a layer of complexity that kills the discussion. Further, the paragraph you quote is not one that I wrote, I don't think. Also, I never argued that using a mono cartridge is a bad idea.

Johnny, No, I don't know for a fact that "most modern mono cartridges" are internally stereo cartridges in which the two channels are bridged at the outputs. But for sure, many are built that way, if not most, based on testimony of persons who would seem to have inside info. And finally, the fact that your mono cartridge is dead quiet is in no way a refutation of anything I wrote. To wit, a mono LP has no music encoded via vertical modulation. Thus, the only "signal" generated by vertical deflection of the stylus in a stereo cartridge that has been converted to put out a mono signal, when playing a mono LP, would be noise. Typically such noise is identical in both channels and would be cancelled when the two channels are combined to produce mono. (I wrote this above.)
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