The honest truth about stereo

In the past few years, serious mono listening has had a resurgence of
sorts in the underground DIY audio world. A few have gone so far as to
go over to mono exclusively, most have built themselves a separate mono
playback chain so they don't feel asymmetric about listening to a
speaker on the left or right.

How much of a benefit is stereo, really, in accurately reproducing
music recorded live in physical space, the sine qua non of audiophilia?


I would say that good stereo is a good thing, but that in reproducing
recordings properly intended for mono , mono loses less than most
moderns believe in total quality. The fact is that unless one is
actually in a band, or is listening in special circumstances-really
large theater organ installations or the quintessential example, the
Alpenhorn on the left and the villagers in the valley on the right-most
listening to music is far more monophonic than one would think. It's
film and special effects and ambient recordings, not music, that
benefit primarily from stereo.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Wishing for Re-Mixes -- not just Re-Masters
    ... survive and the band's attention was given to the mono mixes only. ... the stereo together and the band had no say in their mixes. ... George Martin's position in 1987 that the early albums should be mono ... The recordings are clear, sharp and have a "live" feel to ...
    (rec.music.beatles)
  • Re: OT: SACD Surround Question
    ... The mono button may help against the worst specimen among the many ... horrible stereo solo instrument recordings. ... gives you only fake mono. ...
    (rec.music.classical.recordings)
  • Re: Mono Remasters
    ... I always preferred the stereo over the mono. ... that the remasters are no great improvement on the 87 versions. ...
    (rec.music.beatles)
  • Re: Mono Remasters
    ... I always preferred the stereo over the mono. ... that the remasters are no great improvement on the 87 versions. ...
    (rec.music.beatles)
  • Re: Converting Stereo to Mono taking into account Phase modulation
    ... ) that I wanted to play over an AM radio channel. ... some is mono recordings "converted" to stereo. ...
    (comp.dsp)