Am I totally nuts or just a bit off?

Tosta, if so properly mixed must be rare indeed.

I did walk around with a eyepatch for several years till the VA finally gave me a glass eye, was no big deal.

Rrog, your answer makes a lot of sense to me, thanks.

"Sure seemed to me that mono was way cool especially in the LOW listening fatigue factor. Going on a Goodwill road trip next week-LOL,"

When something is new its easy to overlook flaws. It happens all the time with equipment purchases. Sometime you like a component when you first listen to it but once you have had a chance to listen to it at length, quite often you start hearing things you don't like. I'm not saying that this is the case here, but its possible.

"07-21-13: Rrog
Many people prefer mono because the sound is more natural without the phase problems you get with stereo."

Thats something that can be dealt with. If you match and set your components up properly, phase problems can be avoided.

I agree with Schubert. I always feel more like I'm listening to live music when I listen to mono--especially classical. Maybe this is because I always sit in the nose-bleed seats at classical concerts, so there is no left, right, center, etc. to the sound.

I think that you are totally nuts. The Shure, designed for 78RPM wide grooves, not mono LPs, has a stylus with a diameter of 65 um. The correct size mono stylus for the mono records that you are playing is around 25 um, but not any larger than 35 um. I believe that you are risking groove damage using this sized stylus.

I think that, if you get a mono cartridge with a properly sized stylus you will enjoy your LPs much more. Grado, Ortofon or even the Denon 102 should fit the bill and not break the bank.