Am I totally nuts or just a bit off?

WHART !
Give the details on where to get the Julie London reissue, got to have that !

A stereo record has almost twice the amount of information packed into the groove as compared to a mono recording. Something must have been lost to gain the L+R information. Tracking has to be easier for a mono recording. It's kinda of like a high quality B&W photo; the rich textures, the sharpness and detail are so good that it is hard to imagine it in color, or if there is a color version it seems to take away from the picture. I heard some old mono recordings once on a buddy's Quad ESLs with Quicksilver amps. I could imagine a top notch mono system consisting of a Quad ESL with a mono tube amp and using one side of a dual mono type preamp. The Quad ESL being a good choice in my mind because it is a single point source- and it is fast.

Schubert, glad that you are enjoying the change. I love Dakota Staton as well.

The early stereo effects - vocalist in one channel, band in the other - drive me crazy. I have been enjoying some mono Nancy Wilson and Jo Stafford of late.

If the music is cool mono can sound fine to a point...stereo sounds better though because that is how the world sounds if both of your ears are working, assuming the music was well mixed and recorded. Live music spacial cues are mostly gone from mono. When I mix live (mostly jazz these days) shows you really have to do mono mixes to each side or people sitting nearest a speaker won't get everything, so I add in a small amount of stereo reverb to make it sound more lively and it goes a long way toward tricking the audience into thinking they're having fun.

Tonywinsc, you B&W analogy is dead brilliant !

Wolf, what does sitting nearest a speaker mean?
I have two and I sit equidistant between them and my ears look equidistant in the mirror.