Beatles Mono Box - best way to listen?

Better that you learn now, Doug.

 

It is obvious, with mono you use one ear for listening.

 

For those talking about room interactions, if your speakers produce a centered image on stereo recordings, then you should be fine with the mono playback. Any room issues large enough to mess up mono playback will wreak havoc with centered stereo vocals too.

But if you really want to be certain.....then do what the others said: Unplug one speaker and then move the other speaker to the center position. Then press 'Play' on the cd player. Doing this will move you back 40 years in audio history.....but with better equipment.

 

You should open for Robin Williams on his new tour. Seriously.

The mono mixes are self-evidently great to anyone with two functioning ears, regardless of age. Anyone who can't appreciate them must be a miserable human being, i.e. not a fan of the Beatles in the first place.

I will listen to mine in the living room with my two speakers set up properly.

 

Can't disconnecting one speaker produce a hard load on an amp?

I thought I read here ages ago that was bad...

 

Heck, nearly anything recorded before 1957 or so will be in mono.

 

Slightly OT here, and possibly all wrong. I'm coming from a guitar amplifier perspective here.

With a tube guitar amp, if one runs the amp without having a speaker connected to the output jack(s), one risks damaging the amp's output transformer. I believe the risk is reduced with transistor-based amps, but I'm not sure.

Would there not be a hazzard to your stereo's output transformer if it expects to see resistance at both speaker jacks, but doesn't because you've disconnected one of the speakers? Just wondering.

 

Easy. You use the 7.1 stereo setting on your receiver and sit in the middle and the sound will be right in the middle of your head like wearing a giant pair of headphones. Just kidding......Sort of. But I do plan on trying this out to see what happens.

 

What can I say? You can continue to repeat your mistake or you can change. No skin off my nose either way.

 

I have a separate - but related - question: did George Martin actually use only one speaker for mono mixing in '63 - '68?

I ask because I believe all of the period pics of the various control rooms at Abbey Road pictured in Recording The Beatles by Kehew and Ryan actually show two speakers. Would the engineers have physically moved one speaker to the center of the room for these mixes? Or did they simply mix to mono using the phantom center image generated from the two existing speakers?

 

Do you use 6 ears for multichannel?

 

Van Gogh would certainly prefer the mono box.

 

Anyone? Anyone??? Someone on here knows the answer.....:]

 

Just take a few moments to switch off one of your speakers and, if possible, reposition the active one. Imo, this is the best way to listen to mono.

 

.....I wouldn't mind knowing this either!!! :0

 

My integrtated amp does not have a mono switch but it has a "Direct" switch.
When the "Direct" switch is ON, not only the tone controls are bypassed but also the balance control is disengaged. I mean, when the balance control is turned all the way to the Right, for example, the Left speaker is still getting the Left channel of the stereo signal. In the "Direct"mode, the speakers are still getting the stereo signals but with clearer sound.

When the "Direct" switch is OFF, all the controls work including the balance control. Meaning. when the balance control is turn all the way to the Left, for example, the Right channel of the stereo signal is attenuated and vice versa.

The difference between the two modes is when "Direct" switch is ON, I am getting a better sound due to the fact that the stereo signals do not pass through the tone control (filter) circuitries.

When playing mono, I switch to "Direct" for a shorter signal route and better sound.
When playing stereo, I also switched to "Direct" but only 95% of the time unless the sound is so bad it needs some tweaking in bass and treble frequencies.

 

Yea, right.....


supply and demand ceases if one does not like the product.



if you were using a bit o' humor, my apologies

 

Stereo music is better through speakers than headphones ... headphones are guaranteed to give a distorted presentation of sound for any stereo recording mastered on/for listening over 2 speakers because of the way they eliminate "interaural crosstalk" that is a natural part of listening over speakers.

IMO most Beatles stereo recordings are especially poor/unnatural listening over headphones ... might be good for "analysis" of the individual components of the music but a poor way to hear the songs

 

Yes.

 

Here's a fun idea: head on over to head-fi.org and start a thread with this particular post! As soon as you do, come back here and provide us a link so that we can watch the carnage! I'll go get my popcorn....

 

Do you have a first-person account, interview, or photographic evidence to support this claim? If so, please share - I'd love to learn more about the Beatles' mono mixing sessions (seriously)....

 

One of the weirder threads I've ever read.

I use two speakers as always, just like the old consoles and home hi-fi's had in the sixties. Mono on a good two speaker system sounds fabulous and big - a room filling experience.

Contrary to a post or two here, no 'hole' appears in the imaging between the speakers with mono recordings....if this is happening to you, it indicates your system is not up to snuf.

As for the mono fold down switch, my 1962 amp has one. It does clean up a little underlying surface noise on a more worn mono vinyl record, but also reduces the imaging effect and clarity by a bit. So I almost always leave it in stereo mode.

 

I've thought it sounds fabulous and big too, but I get a balance issue - one side always seems richer, and the crackles are in stereo as I don't have a mono cartridge.

I am going to disconnect one of my speakers as mentioned above.
Hurray for weird threads!!

 

I read this very recently. I remember because it raised an eyebrow. They had a stereo speaker spread but mixed mono on just one of them. It seemed odd to me so it stuck in my head.

Was it in the "Recording The Beatles"?

 

Grant...relax...think of pretty marmalade people and pink paisley skies...Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!