Using a double Y Cord for mono recordings

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on the forum - have been reading post for years now! I have a question for you all. I use the double y cord trick when listening to mono records but like others I find it a pain to unplug the output of my pre amp from my integrated amp and plug into the y cord. So I thought was being clever by splitting each channel as it comes out of the pre amp and doing the following:

1 half each split goes into the Aux input on my Integrated Amplifier as usual for stereo playback.
The other half of each split are combined using the y cord and then I plug the output of this into the Tuner inputs on the amp. I thought the Aux input would be in stereo and the Tuner would be mono. Both of these appear to be in Mono. Can anyone tell me why this would be? I thought I was being clever by doing this but clearly not!

Any help greatly appreciated!

 

The only thing I can thing of is you should carefully check you cabling setup. Be sure that you did not send two right channels to the Aux and two left channels to the Tuner. I know this seems silly, but check it anyway.

 

Welcome, it's always good to see a lurker turned into a poster!

I'm not really following what you are doing with the Y cables. The easiest to do is if you have a tape monitor circuit - plug each channel of the tape in/out through the double-y, then to get mono use engage the tape monitor with the selector on the front of the amp.

Do you have a separate phono stage, or do you plug your turntable into a phono input of your integrated amp? It could help if you let us know what amp you are using.

 

I believe what you are talking about was something that I brought up on page 5. Another person said it would just turn both mono. I never did get around to trying it myself.

 

Hi @qwerty and @Isaac K. , thanks for the replies. I'm using a project phono box S2 and my amp is a Denon pma-450. @qwerty - if I'm following what you're saying, I should combine the outputs from the tape rec out and then that is plugged into the tape input ?

Thanks

Thanks

 

I believe that's the way it's done.

As you are using an external phono stage, another option would be to build a switchbox that would sit between the phono stage and the amp. A switch will select mono or stereo. There is one (maybe two) long threads on it on this site. But the tape loop is a more elegant solution.

 

Here is the switch box thread: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/stereo-mono-switch.386061/page-20

 

Keep in mind that whatever you add to the audio chain is not going to be transparent. It's going to affect the sound.

 

Has anyone tried this combination? How does it work? TT -> (C2G 03161 + C2G 03181) -> phono preamp

C2G 03161 - 03161 Value Series One RCA Mono Male to Two RCA Stereo Male Y-Cable - 0.5 FT - Herman ProAV
C2G 03181 - 03181 Value Series One RCA Female to Two RCA Male Y-Cable - 0.5 FT - Herman ProAV

 

The two Y's would work like this (if the system will let me draw with text)
- is the male cable end, = is the female cable end:

(R out)..- #######................####### -..(R in)
..................##### - = #####
(L out)..- #######................####### -..(L in)
....

 

I just finished transferring a few mono LP with the "Y" cable mono merge method. Julie London - "Lonely Girl" was the first one and I did hear some mild ticks get even milder. Needle dropped to 24/96 digital. I'll use ClicRepair on the files as well should sound pretty spectacular. This album is even mellower than her debut. A good late night low lights affair.