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On 21/12/2011, Tom Fine wrote:

> Ugh, I hate listening to mono records this way. Unfortunately, some
> people who do otherwise excellent transfers of old grooved-disk
> recordings don't sum to mono. It's incredibly annoying to have
> "stereo" surface noise with a small field of mono content in the
> middle.

The mono content should be dead centre whether you sum or not.

I find it annoying to have the noise blended in with it rather than
separate.

>  It actually makes the soundfield for the content (as opposed
> to the extraneous noise) more narrow and less distinct. Summing to
> mono: 1) removes some low-frequency disk-noise issues by cancelling
> out-of-phase stuff, and 2) cancels or reduces the level vs the main
> content for other random noises and the overall "whoosh" sound. When I
> transfer a mono record, I always sum it, but the Restoration Preamp
> has a mode where you can mix between left and right to see if you
> reduce noise or distortion that way (sometimes this works, I find
> mostly it doesn't matter). I think there is another method where you
> can put one channel out of phase and mix it to a level that cancels
> noise the most, but I haven't tried this and don't remember the
> details.
> 
> One man's opinions, but based on years of listening to and
> transferring mono sources.
> 
I think we all have decades of experience, and different preferences.

It could depend on the shapes of our ears.

Regards
-- 
Don Cox
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