One stereo or two (stereo and mono) cartridges?

Why spend so much? There are many excellent cartridges available for way less! No need for a mono cartridge. A stereo cartridge plus a phono stage/preamp with a mono switch is fine. Unless you are a 1% high roller spending $10K is a foolish idea! A Hana Umami will sound excellent! There is one for sale now here on Agon for $2.7K with low hours. Grab it!

I've always played mono records with stereo cartridges.  I understand there is less noise with a mono cartridge, which could be useful.  However, for me, I put the money into a better stereo cartridge and tonearm.

Rather than split the cost, why not adjust the percentage on the number of mono records you have versus the number of stereo.   If you have 30% mono why not spend $7000 on a stereo cartridge and $3000 on a mono?   That will help you budget you stereo dollar but how the cartridge sounds is probably more important than just a dollar figure.

Note that all new recordings will most likely be stereo, too.  Also note that many mono recordings are not RIAA compensated, so spending a lot of money for a mono cartridge could be somewhat of a waste. 

One great stereo cartridge would be my choice. Actually recently heard a My Sonic Labs Gold Signature (I believe retails at 9k) that I'm saving for. Incredible musicality and tone with a soundstage to die for.

@luis223344  Having both a stereo and a mono cart is great fun. In general mono carts are a little less costly so I would say 60/40 or 65/35 stereo/mono for budget.

Will you have two tonearms? Or use a removable head shell tonearm and swap carts as needed? 

Solypsa

Planning for two arms. Good point about the relative cost of carts. thanks! 

Dear @luis223344  :  The quality performance for play mono recordings quality performance between a stereo and a mono cartridge is not " night and day " differences and if you have two tonearms then makes more sense to me that you buy two different stereo cartridges, this is a limitless decision because the mono cartridge puts immediatly a limitation of playing alternatives in those tonearms.

As @jasonbourne52  pointed out the Umami Red is an excellent quality performer. The Dynavector top of the line is excellent too as the Colibri or the LPS.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis981a7-benz-micro-lp-s-cartridges

It truly depends on your personality and values. It is probably breat to hear different point of views from here. But it is really you.

Personally, I can seldom listen to a mono recording… I get bored almost immediately. I loved a Fats Waller album but am so disappointed it is not in stereo. It just falls flat. Another personal thing… I want the best possible sound at all times, so I would never own two cartridges. Never.

Alternatively I have read about folks with nearly a dozen cartridges with head shells… pairing the perfect cartridge with a particular album… I am left scratching my head.

On the other hand, I shoot a Leica M10 and have been very tempted to buy a Leica M10 monochrome (only shoots monochrome… higher resolution and more gray shades). 
 

So, it comes down to you. Given your question I like the idea of splitting the investment in proportion to how much you listen to stereo versus mono. 
 

Also, from my experience if I have a $10K budget… definitely worth spending it. My cartridge is around $8.5K, definitely well worth it. 

@ghdprentice personally, I can seldom listen to a mono recording… I get bored almost immediately. I loved a Fats Waller album but am so disappointed it is not in stereo. It just falls flat

You clearly are a seasoned vinylista, but in my experience good mono is far from boring. Ymmv

@luis223344 investigate Tedeska for Mono ( and Stereo for that matter ) 

Thank you @solypsa , I researched Tedeska and they sound very committed to

and in mono in particular. That is the fun of the hobby, research for impossible... Few seem to own mono and stereo carts. Surprises me. Michael Framer was advising NOT to buy the Beatles in Mono box set if you did not own a mono cart. Obviously, he wants to help sell hardware, and advertising..., yet his article was interesting and seemed to make sense. I bought the box set nevertheless...

There are ''implicite'' and ''explicite'' premises or ''presuppositions'' . There

is also the ''theory''  that there is no ''theory independant obesrvation''.

I Iintroduced ''presupposition'' because ''theory'' is to optimistic reg. our

presuppoitions. . ''Some'' may be ''programmed'' by our upbringing . That

is learning them  with lour anguage  acquisition . Among those there are

some about ''order'' or ''sequence''.

For example if one does not own ''mono LP''s'' why should he or she need an

mono cartridge? My question is ''deduced'' from the ''fact'' that everybody

seems to own i-phones. Because the other owns them or because one

can't do without.? But I must confess not to own one. because I already

own the ordinary kind. For, say, few calls pro week those are sufficient. 

That is then my presupposition. 

I beg to differ with "spatialking", where he states "Also note that many mono recordings are not RIAA compensated, so spending a lot of money for a mono cartridge could be somewhat of a waste." The statement has merit if you are talking about 78 rpm records from the 40s and earlier. However, once we entered the LP era in the early 50s, all LPs are frequency compensated according to one or another algorithm, and by the mid to late 50s, all LPs I know about were RIAA compensated. I guess some British companies continued to use other algorithms longer than we did in the US, before standardizing on RIAA. Moreover, frequency compensation does not take place at the level of the cartridge; this is done in and by the phono stage, so in a way the point is irrelevant. My opinion is that there is much to be gained, not just a reduction in noise, by playing mono LPs in mono and that on the other hand there is no real need to invest in a mono cartridge IF your line stage has a mono switch. Just flip the switch for mono LPs, and you will hear mono LPs with much improved fidelity, compared to playing them in stereo with a stereo cartridge. That’s just my opinion. Yes, you might squeeze out another dollop of wonderfulness if you use a mono cartridge; I am not going to dispute that, but also consider that you are then comparing two different cartridges, as well as two different processes.  Anything goes in that regard.

I can unequivocally state that my mono LP’s sound better (sometimes much better) when I install and play with my mono cart vs my stereo carts. 
 

@lewm thank you, this is exactly the type of information I was looking for. I do have a mono option on my Rega Aura. I tried it at the beginning and did not notice much of a difference, so stopped using it. I will give it a fair trial.