No quality issues with that Coltrane set - super quiet.
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Completely agree, great quality including sleeve.
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I’ve been listening to side 2 of the Mono release tonight and it’s just so good, so involving it’s not as dynamic as the stereo version it’s warmer and ever so slightly softer if that makes sense but these small differences make more of a difference than I first thought I’m going to buy a mono cart in the next month or so as I’ve quite a few mono records now.
I’m still leaning ever so slightly towards the stereo release but if I only owned either copy that would be fine with me.
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So would that mean buying a second TT/arm/cart for playing mono LPs?
It would surely be a heck of a faff to keep having to swap cartridges depending on which albums you were playing.
(I don’t have enough mono LPs to justify a second deck.)
PS Actually, it’s occurred to me that I could buy a second armwand for the ARO with a mono cartridge onboard, so perhaps you have something similar. Although I rather doubt whether I would bother to swap things around in that way.
I like mono also but I only have four, I intend buying more as they come along. I have a Rega P8 , I’m thinking that I may get a cheaper deck with a mono cartridge in the future if I get a lot more mono but first things first.
I’m only talking a change of cartridge rather than a whole deck or system I’d go with another cartridge from the Audio Technica VM series the VM610 Mono sensibly priced at about £120 and a straight swap for my other VM cart and although it would mean swapping the whole cartridge not just the stylus it’s only a 5 minute job.
It is my understanding that mono records are cut laterally so the cartridge will only move side to side horizontally you can play a mono record with a stereo cartridge but it can suffer from crosstalk, phase and tracking errors which can result in a degradation of sound quality.
A mono cart will not suffer the same possible issues and will send the exact same signal to both speakers giving a truer mono and therefor an improved sound.
you were doing well until the last one…
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I know but for some reason Barry and Yvonne from hi-de-hi sprung to mind when i saw that name, that’s the main reason I bought it. Never heard anything by him before and I wished it stayed that way…
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You’re in Brighton and you don’t have a record shop with vinyl? You have Resident for a start, which has a wide selection from what I have found when visiting Brighton - and their mail order is good from my experience.
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Resident Records are excellent in my experience.
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Thank you, Clive and Richard. Yes, Resident usually have a pretty good selection, but they have a habit (or they did have last time I went in) of taking the LPs out of the sleeves, before displaying the sleeves in the racks.
I get that they want to deter shoplifting scum, but I prefer to have new records that are sealed. So I’m driven to use Amazon.
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At least with Residents approach, you can inspect the LP prior to purchase. With Amazon you are only going to unseal it yourself and then find a problem.
Just my opinion.
That’s a fair point, Neil.
Although I find that I don’t get many faulty LPs. Maybe I’ve been lucky so far, and I’ve just jinxed myself now!
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I agree with you Graham on that. I don’t buy Blue Note Tone Poets from Resident for instance as I want them sealed. If I were to go in and buy Floyd Animals today then that will be sealed as they will have lots of copies behind the counter.
Have you tried Union Music in Lewes - all sealed and a good selection.
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Thanks for the suggestion of Union Music. I shall look it out when I go there next, (although I was actually in Lewes a couple of weeks ago).
I might need to renew my passport first - there’s a strange (almost) antipathy between Brighton and Lewes, which is a shame, as it’s a lovely place (except on Bonfire Night, when it’s terrifying!). It’s probably something dating back to the Civil War, or something equally recent.
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Unless they only have a single copy, the record you get is a sealed one from behind the counter.
Back in the day most proper record shops only put sleeves out in the racks
Plenty of interesting record shops in Brighton
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I wouldnt be to hung up about having a seperate Mono capability. A good well set up Stereo can play Mono perfectly well especially modern well mastered re issue Mono cuts. I have many Mono’s that I still prefer over the Stereo versions even when played through Stereo.
With a properly set up system the Mono sound will be centred between the speakers and I often find, especially with Jazz recordings from the 50’s that there is a lovely depth and in the room feel that sometimes seems lost on the Stereo spread. Of course many Stereo records from this period werent proper Stereo as we know it these days with a lot of hard panning and a hole in the middle which makes the Mono preferable to me
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That would make it sound twice better than the 180g 
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The first one (of the two I’m waiting for) has arrived: what a joy!
Maybe next weekend I’ll listen to my 77’s copy to find out the improvement (if there is real one), but now I’m enjoying the music.
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