Mono-ing my NVA amp

[Ed345]

I've just got some mono records, and have been told that for best playback I should press the mono button on my amp. As it doesn't have one, I could get the same effect of summing together left and right by connecting an interconnect from the left to the right of the tape output. Is this safe / sensible with NVA amps? Or should I ignore it all and just keep it stereo?

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Someone has been feeding you nonsense. Just play it as usual, it will make no difference. I think someone is confusing it with mono cartridge, that does make mono records better, but the amp couldn't care less if the two signals are the same.

[Ed345]

As I understood it, it was about turning the stereo signal into two mono signals. Apparently this should remove the vertical information from the cart, which should focus the mono image and reduce surface noise?

I'm not sure if it'll make any difference, but thought it was the kind of thing I should check if it would do any harm to the amp.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Again I think who ever told you this has got confused with cartridges. An electrical signal is an electrical signal if generated by up and down or side to side. As far as I know mono LPs are side to side it was old 78 that were up and down. Up and down in an LP is amplitude (loudness).

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

The mono button on Japanese amplifiers served two purposes. To give the amp more perceived value as it had *another* button. And to mono wavering poor FM stereo signals.

[Classicrock]

There is an argument for providing a mono button on phono stages (icon audio) or using a double Y cable after phono stage, The later is rather inconvenient for swapping between stereo and mono records. Claimed to have same effect as a mono cartridge???? Whole discussion re Y cables on SH forum started by Hoffman himself. Should he know better as a mastering engineer ?

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/i ... ply.81073/