DCAudioDIY.com

As a spinoff of the other discussion where I suggested a mono setup for the DIY room at CAF later this year, I thought it would be interesting to discuss how the room could be set up to optimize for mono rather than stereo.

I suspect most of the discussion would center around the position of the speaker, but I wonder if room treatment would be different as well.

I remember my father had a mono system and he placed his bass reflex triangular shaped box in a corner to reinforce the bass, but that is much as I can contribute.

ray

For me, soundstage is a HUGE part of music and audio systems. So, why mono?

Because a dedicated mono system would be different. I am not suggesting it would be better than stereo but I suspect very few of us have heard 'real mono' in a long time. I suspect properly set up mono is quite different from simply shutting down one channel of stereo or playing a mono record through stereo speakers.

In the reverse direction, I don't think I have ever heard a properly set up multi-channel 'surround sound' system.

Perhaps I value curiosity more than quality. That's why I build.

ray

We're all different, and that's a good thing. My curiosity takes me down the road to see how good I can make the system I want in the end. The good news is it's getting better so curiosity is paying off for me.

ratbagp wrote:Because a dedicated mono system would be different. I am not suggesting it would be better than stereo but I suspect very few of us have heard 'real mono' in a long time. I suspect properly set up mono is quite different from simply shutting down one channel of stereo or playing a mono record through stereo speakers.

ray

Couple of years ago, I auditioned a vintage mono system at DejaVu audio. Excellent. Its a stereo system build driven as mono. You know they do all types of exotic vintage stuff. Not sure if they still have the system but walking in one day.

I admit I enjoy a wide and deep sound stage, but I do not like being a prisoner to the "hot spot"
Mono sounds good no matter where you are in the room, very much like the real thing

Corner loaded horn, with a monoblock amp, autoformer preamp, transcription table, mono phono, true mono cartridge. And we dress and talk like this for the entire show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHUz1b0HJqo

Pelliott321 wrote:I admit I enjoy a wide and deep sound stage, but I do not like being a prisoner to the "hot spot"
Mono sounds good no matter where you are in the room, very much like the real thing

Which makes it a perfect fit for CAF...

Roscoe

I forbid it.

And who the ...... are you