The choice between mono v. stereo is almost wholly dependent on the intent and quality of the original recording.
As a widely available commercial product on LP, stereo dates back to the late 1950s and early 60s. However, being brand new at the time, many of those recordings were overly enamored with the sound-effect aspect of stereo which led to a lot of grossly exaggerated and/or "ping-pong" recordings. Definitely not something that resulted in improved natural sound reproduction. The Beatles actually used stereo recorders in the studio for multi-track purposes. Four and eight channel open reels weren't yet common (if even available) so they took a 2 channel recorder and used the left channel to record the instruments and came back and added vocals latter on the other channel. The original intent for the final release was a mixed mono recording. However, rapidly becoming all the rage, pop trends led to the albums also being released in stereo even though the effect was completely unnatural. As the studio equipment got better and the initial novelty of stereo passed, the quality of stereo recordings improved with less exaggeration and ping-ponginess (though the 1960s psychedelic rock phase certainly had a lot of fun with stereo). A well done stereo recording played back on a properly set up system in a decent room can through a wonderfully natural, broad soundstage. This can be amazingly lifelike for recordings of acoustic instruments and unamplified voice. It can be far better than a mono recording. However, I'd prefer a mono recording if it means staying away from the artificial stereo or... shudder... a mono recording that has been digitally processed into pretend stereo. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ mlsstl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9598 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=106011 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
