Is Stereo Necessary?

[124]

http://www.soundstageav.com/mastersonaudio.html

--124

"124" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> http://www.soundstageav.com/mastersonaudio.html
>
> --124
>
I doubt many people who have heard decent stereo are going to want to return
to mono.

[Arny Krueger]

"124" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> http://www.soundstageav.com/mastersonaudio.html
>

Back in the days when stereo was a magic word and the major record companies
had tons of mono music they wanted to retread as stereo and cop some cheap
sales, one trick was to use an echo chamber with stereo pickups to add a
sense of spaciousness to the old mono recordings.

Quoting from the article cited above:

"I was able to use a large, irregularly shaped room, which had its own
hall-like environment. Listening became a very different experience, and at
first I didn't like it. The room's volume and "liveness" made the usual
stereo image fade away to practically nothing -- a record had to really Ping
and Pong before I could hear much difference between left and right. But
after getting used to this, I began to appreciate that it was much closer to
a live listening experience than the exaggerated stereo I was used to. The
sound was not particularly well localized, but then, it isn't in a concert
hall either. The overall acoustic effect was impressive, however; I doubted
I would ever go back to small-room listening."

"The real joy, however, was in rediscovering all my early mono records after
so many years. They sounded just fine."

See the connection? The only mjaor difference is that the author is using an
actual listening room instead of an echo chamber.

[[email protected]]

One thing I miss on my current amp is a mono button, to cancel out the
effect of a recording engineer who used the pan pots like toggle
switches.

TB

124 wrote:
> http://www.soundstageav.com/mastersonaudio.html
>
> --124

[Bret Ludwig]

wrote:
> One thing I miss on my current amp is a mono button, to cancel out the
> effect of a recording engineer who used the pan pots like toggle
> switches.


It would certainly be easy enouggh to build.

[Arny Krueger]

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> One thing I miss on my current amp is a mono button, to cancel out the
> effect of a recording engineer who used the pan pots like toggle
> switches.

If you put in a moderate blending function, the action you desire may be
accomplished full-time without a switch.

IOW if you reduce the electrical separation to say 10 dB, most well-imaged
stereo sounds about the same, but the extreme stuff picks up the desired
blending.