Originally posted by Irishacts:
My feeling on this is that playing in mono is almost the same as listening to the world around you with one finger stuffed in your ear.
You were born with two ears to hear in stereo, anything less than that is just not natural.
Everyone I know who loves the bose system now has a pair. They too at one point believed one system was all they would ever need, but there's just no getting away from the fact that stereo just sounds natural where mono does not.
Regards
James.
The flaw with this "analogy" is in life you are ALWAYS in the "sweet spot"
In a room the "sweet spot is about 10% of listeners in the rear... Given a choice people prefer to hear crystal clear music that sounds the same no matter where they are sitting...Not a right mix heavy sound on one side and a left mix on the left side..Anyone who pans drums will find a drum fill getting louder or quieter in the mix and with a little mud as the far part comes to them off the back wall milliseconds later.
Major showrooms and concert halls are mixed in mono for a reason. Now if you play in a room no larger than 50X50 and everyone is front and center Stereo has a pleasing quality mono cannot match.
Any bigger and something will be missing to 90% of the listeners and phase issues will be an issue with reflections.