As I type this, I'm listening to the Beatles White Album, the version released in September 2009…in mono! The release of carefully remastered box sets of all Beatles albums in both stereo and mono created a huge amount of discussion regarding which was "better." Given the price for either one, most people would only acquire one or the other. But which one. And why mono?

Stereo is modern. Stereo is how people listen to music (ignoring those who actually surround mixes). It's what they expect, and in the age of portable music players with earphones, they are not disappointed. The possible exception to stereo is podcasts, which are often in mono to save file space (although the difference in file size is really a matter of sample rate).

All of which is to say, stereo is better. Or is it? Frankly, after decades of listening to music under a very wide variety of circumstances, I'd have to say that stereo is often not the best way to listen to music.


Stereo recordings were first introduced in 1958, just over a half century ago, long before many people alive today were even born. At the time, stereo was the latest innovation in what was then known as high fidelity or hi-fi - the reproduction of music as close as possible to live sound. To achieve this, a combination of turntable, pre-amp, amplifier and speakers was used to listen to music…in monophonic. Until 1958, all recording were monaural, so the arrival of stereo put the last piece in the audio puzzle.

The primary benefit of stereo is that by having right and left channels, one could replicate the sound stage of live performance. It should be noted that hi-fi was mostly the obsession of those who listened to classical music, which was performed using acoustic instruments on a stage, with musicians arrayed from left to right. With stereo, the violins of the symphony orchestra were to the left, where they belonged, and woodwinds were to the right. The other audience for hi-fi was fans of jazz, who preferred a soundstage of musicians just as they would be heard in a club.

The 60s brought electric guitars and rock 'n' roll to the forefront of popular culture. Although many albums were still in mono, some recording studios began using stereo equipment and then experimented with using the sound stage to place band members from left to right. Although standard practice would become drums, bass and vocals in the center, for a number of years engineers would sometimes place them to the right or left…because they could.

In those days, consoles in recording studios had switches with three positions - left, center and right, so if you didn't want the vocal or drums in the center, extreme right or left were the only alternatives. At the time it probably seemed interesting to do so, but in retrospect the results were invariably less than satisfying. It was only as consoles became available with panning knobs that could be set anywhere along the continuum from left to right that instruments and voices could be placed wherever one wanted between the center and either side. Once this was possible, some engineers took to actively panning certain sounds from left to right, creating movement that sometimes was obvious but often only when listening with headphones - which revealed such details.

The most important requirement for listening to music in stereo is to be in the "sweet spot" when doing so. That is, there's a small area at which the music from the right and left speakers is heard with the sound stage nicely arranged from left to right. The size of the sweet spot varies somewhat depending on how far apart the speakers are and how far back the listener is, but because the sound field image starts to come apart when speakers are too far from each other, there's a practical limit to the size of the ideal listening location. Move too far to the left or right and the music from the other side becomes more difficult to hear and the placement of the instruments less obvious.

It used to be that husbands spent a lot of effort trying to get their wives to arrange the living room, family area or den so that the two speakers could be placed symmetrically at the ideal distance from each other, with a chair precisely in the perfect listening position. These days, the only time this is likely to occur is if the home includes a home theater setup with precisely located left, center, right and rear speakers for movies, with the left and right speakers used when listening to music.

More typically, the speakers and furniture are arranged so that the sweet spot doesn't even have seating available, and one hears mostly the music from whichever speaker is closest. Moving about the room creates a constantly changing audio experience. Thus the intended purpose of stereo is largely non-existent in the typical home. This leaves headphones and earphones - most popular with portable music players - for true stereo.

The problem with headphones and earphones is that the ears are isolated from each other, hearing only what is being reproduced in either the right or left channel of the stereo mix. Anything heard in the center is actually being played in both channels simultaneously. Unlike when listening to speakers, there's no cross-feed, so anything not in the center is completely isolated to either the left or right. Worse, because band members are rarely recorded playing together in the same room at the same time, but rather are isolated from each other using separate microphones, headphone/earphone isolation is exaggerated even more. Although not necessarily unpleasant, listening this way is nothing like hearing music in a natural setting. The good news is that high-quality headphones can equal the audio reproduction found in expensive speakers costing thousands of dollars (euros, pounds or yen).


Given the almost complete dominance of stereo, the release of the Beatles album box sets in both stereo and mono came as a surprise to many people. Those knowledgeable regarding early Beatles recordings are aware that the Beatles were present for and involved in the mixing of the mono versions but left stereo mixes to engineers. Many enthusiasts actually prefer the mono mixes, which avoid the odd placement of drums and voices on some tracks to the right or left, an issue also present on other albums from bands recording during those early days of stereo.

Frankly, unless one can sit in the sweet spot and/or doesn't mind the way stereo music sounds on headphones, mono is a better way to listen to music. No matter where one sits or stands in a room, the entire mix is easily heard. Instead of being directional, the use of two or more speakers with mono fills a room with music in a cohesive, pleasing manner that can actually sound better. It may not have occurred to you, but the music you hear in stores and at clubs with DJs is mono, not stereo. This is done so that all instruments and voices are heard no matter where one sits or stands. The same holds true for sound reinforcement at concerts. Although concert recordings are mixed in stereo, the music heard through speakers is mono.

With headphones or earphones, mono eliminates the phenomenon of voices and instruments being to one side or the other while drums, bass and vocal are in the center. Although it would seem that the spaciousness of stereo would be missed, the manner in which mono fills the center and seems to be coming more from the front offers its own qualities.

Of course, the only way to experience mono for yourself is to make the effort. I say this because you can't simply switch your music system (home or auto) or portable from stereo to mono. Manufacturers simply have no reason to include such switches - these would increase costs and customers would be unlikely to use them. One exception is the stereo-mono switch on some portable radios because switching to mono can make a marginal stereo signal sound much better. Another option for hearing music in mono is with podcasts. The majority of podcasts are mono because file size is reduced by half or even two-thirds - but only for true mono mp3 files with a single track; mp3 files with “mono” content on left and right tracks are no smaller than stereo files. There are other ways, however, to become a mono connoisseur.


There are several methods to go mono. If you have a traditional type of music system with separate components, one way is via reconfiguring the connection between your CD player and the amplifier/receiver. Go to your local electronics store that offers a variety of audio cable adapters and purchase the following:

• two each RCA splitter - two female to one male
  
• one each RCA coupler - both ends female
  
• one RCA stereo cable - 3 feet long