I don't think there is an attraction to Mono. At least I don't prefer mono to stereo, stereo is always preferred. But so-called fake stereo is not stereo. This may seem contradictory, but, there are albums I do prefer the mono mix over the stereo mixes. One album is Hendrix's Axis: Bold As Love. The panning of the instruments is all over the place. Guitars and vocal are panned over reasons that don't don't make a lot of sense. It's just not natural sounding. Most of the Beatles are preferred in Mono because the instruments are just lazily hard panned in stereo. If you are listening on an old console where the speakers have little separation, this probably worked fine. But it doesn't work if you speakers are 6 or 8 feet apart. It just sounds like Ringo is playing in a different room. Other mixes have the recorded tracks overlayed on top of each other in stereo, an example of this Big Brother and the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills. Cheap Thrills oddly had more separation in depth of the sound stage, while the stereo version has vocals smeared over guitar tracks. The point is some recordings were mixed better in Mono and those are the ones I want. I don't want Mono because it's Mono.
Mono Recordings
I was listening to my brand new copy of Analog Productions "The Chirping Crickets" sitting here at the computer way of axis and the sound was wonderful. I decided to check it out at the listening position and it was surreal. Music coming from a slit in space. The first thing that popped into my head was the Outer Limits intro. Off axis you would not know it was Mono and instruments and voices attain their normal sizes. I'm not sure where the passion for mono recordings comes from. Obviously in some instances you have no choice. There is a lot of incredible music from the early to mid 50's that is incredible but given the choice I would go for the stereo version. Getting the Beatles collection on CD in Mono seems a bit odd to me. Except for the old music can anyone tell me what the attraction to mono recordings is?