Thank you Winamp

[Dubious Squirrel]

For including force mono. I'm deaf in one ear so sadly no stereo or surround for me, but I still love my music. Its appreciated

[o0Julia0o]

nice to hear. But i don´t understand it complete. If you get the sound out of two boxes(different for each canal) both will come to your "functional" ear, right? So what´s the problem of hearing in stereo?

julia

[Dubious Squirrel]

Hi Julia! I like that name (Its a long story).

The problem with hearing in stereo is that I'm physiologically unable to do it. The work-around, for me at least, is Winamp. So this is merely an appreciation thread, nothing more.

"Nice to hear"... Yes, it is. Is that some new brand of subtle mono humour? Nicely done

[MrSinatra]

if a source is mono, you want to hear it in mono. if a source is stereo, you want to hear it in stereo.

now, if you only have one ear, that does not stop you from hearing both sounds/speakers, in that one ear.

do you hear stereo? no, but you hear both speakers. your one ear "down-mixes" the stereo to mono.

but it should be said that downmixing to mono, whether done by your ear, or by winamp, is not the same as hearing something in "as it should sound" in mono.

what i mean is that if you have a beatle record, one in mono, one in stereo, and you take the stereo one and downmix it to a mono output (by say sending both left and right to one speaker simultaneously) that is NOT the same output as the true mono source record.

so my point is that while winamp can output mono for you on one or more speakers regardless of source encoding, it does not mean that you are hearing something as it would have sounded if it were recorded in mono to begin with.

[thinktink]

What if you're using headphones?

[o0Julia0o]

headphones will make the bad stereo effect more bad, i think.

Dubious. I can´t write you an personal message.. so why do you like Julia. Where do you live?

[Dubious Squirrel]

Originally Posted by MrSinatra

if a source is mono, you want to hear it in mono. if a source is stereo, you want to hear it in stereo... SNIP

Interesting and I think I understand, but from a non-audiophile perspective it seems like a subtle difference. With minimal effort the compromise I have now is pretty decent. Question though; I haven't researched it, but I also imagine there isn't allot of mono content produced now?

[MrSinatra]

there is almost no mono content created these days. in the 50s and 60s there was more, and Beatles fans who are also audiophiles rejoiced when their entire catalog was released in its stereo AND mono versions. you can find all kinds of online listening comparisons and usually the earlier the record, the more pronounced the difference.

[Dubious Squirrel]

Originally Posted by o0Julia0o

Dubious. I can´t write you an personal message.. so why do you like Julia. Where do you live?

And back to Julia Its a long story and not one that I'm prepared to tell on Winamp's forums, it would be a bit off-topic. But I like making new friends so you can email me at cintas62@hotmail.com if you like