Dedicated Mono Vinyl Replay : What Would Be Your Particular Weapons Of Choice ?

[Don_Camillo]

the ideal mono rig, or course starts with just how serious do you want to get? and how much mono listening will you actually do?

I´d like to add what periode mono records do you want to play?

In case you want to dive into shellac you´d need

1) a turntable with variable speed (up to 120 rpm would be best but up to 90 rpm will work for most shellac on the market) - Rek-o-Kut CVS-12 or 16, B-16H, Rondine, L-37 or LP-743 come to mind
2) definetly a phono preamp with variable eq - Hagtech Monogram or Monk Audio come to mind
3) and at least some mono phono cartridges with different stylii sizes what im most cases will point at the vintage ones like GE RPX, Fairchild 225A, Pierre Clement E25B ...
4) with vintage mono phono cartridges you´d better go the vintage tonearm road either. Gray Research 108c and their numerous Japanese copies come to mind.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I´d like to add what periode mono records do you want to play?

In case you want to dive into shellac you´d need

1) a turntable with variable speed (up to 120 rpm would be best but up to 90 rpm will work for most shellac on the market) - Rek-o-Kut CVS-12 or 16, B-16H, Rondine, L-37 or LP-743 come to mind
2) definetly a phono preamp with variable eq - Hagtech Monogram or Monk Audio come to mind
3) and at least some mono phono cartridges with different stylii sizes what im most cases will point at the vintage ones like GE RPX, Fairchild 225A, Pierre Clement E25B ...
4) with vintage mono phono cartridges you´d better go the vintage tonearm road either. Gray Research 108c and their numerous Japanese copies come to mind.

i took the easy 'later period' route; i have about 100 wide groove early LP mono's from the 50's; and another 800-900 later mono's. so no pre-LP shellacs.

 

[Don_Camillo]

i took the easy 'later period' route ...

Same on my side, but some shellacs in the collection also.

Even with the early mono LPs, I've found that a phono preamp with variable EQ is more valuable than experimenting with a single-speaker. The EQ has a very significant influence on the spatial presentation/ illusion and in particular the plasticity.

By the way: those vintage mono cartidges also work very well on more modern tonearms with high effective mass. My Fairchild 225-A mounted on a Fidelity Research FR-64s sounds sublime - it´s one of the best mono phono cartridges I´ve come along.

 

[Lynnot]

Luxman LXV-OT10 Phono Equalizer Amplifier Review and Measurements

Luxman LXV-OT10 Phono Equalizer Amplifier Review/Measurements Let's take an audio company with nearly 100 years of history. That's Luxman, which has been around since 1925. Now take one of the oldest audiophile magazines in Japan. That's stereo, which was first published in 1963 -- just...

www.audiosciencereview.com

I organized one of these Luxman LXV-OT10 phono amp kits from Japan.
It allows adaption to the most common old mono equalizations.

Look:


And these EQ settings work well, I tried it on a number of records with good results.

Unfortunately, distortion wise this device is far from HiFi. It just doesn't meet my expectations
on sound quality. Upgraded DIY versions exist in Japan and language barriers make it rather
difficult for me to follow the upgrade paths.

Any suggestions for improvement?

Best regards,
Tony