![]() ![]() Getting stereo sound in a home format proved a bit more difficult, however. Introduction of Stereo RecordsĮxperiments in stereo recording and playback date to at least the 1930s, and the soundtrack to the 1940 Disney film Fantasia was recorded in stereo and played back in that format in theaters in some cities. ![]() That soon changed, and for the next decade, buyers encountered a number of complications when it came to buying record albums at the store. As all records were pressed in mono, there were no choices to make for buyers – you went to the store and if you saw an album you liked, you bought it, took it home and played it. This format existed from the introduction of the long-play, or “LP” record in 1948 through the introduction of stereo records in 1957. Record players, even expensive ones, had a single speaker and that was sufficient to provide playback. Mono Recordsįor roughly the first decade that 33 1/3 RPM record albums existed, they all played in monaural, or as they’re commonly known, “mono.” There was one channel of information encoded on the disc, usually sourced from magnetic tape that also had one channel of information.ĭuring recording, multiple microphones may have been used, but the signals from each microphone would be mixed into a single signal. In this article, we’ll cover the history of mono and stereo records, and explain why both formats exist, why both formats were necessary and why, as a collector, you might have at least a passing interesting in owning one or more albums in the form of both mono and stereo records.Ĭlick any of the links below to jump to each category:Ĭlick here to browse our selection of mono records.Ĭlick here to browse our selection of stereo records. Which ones should you buy as a collector? Is one format preferable over the other? If so, why? stereo issue remains relevant, as many popular artists of the late 1950s and the 1960s released albums in both formats. Today, of course, nearly all newly recorded albums are in stereo, and they’ve been that way for more than fifty years. If you had a stereo system or “hi-fi,”, you’d likely buy a stereo copy. If you had a “record player”, you’d likely buy the album in mono. Which one you purchased was largely dependent on what kind of equipment you were going to use to play it. For roughly a decade, people who purchased record albums in stores had to make a choice – do you buy the mono or the stereo copy? If you’re a record collector and you collect albums made between 19 or so, you’re likely to encounter something that compact disc buyers have never had to deal with – copies of an album pressed in either mono or stereo.
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