What is accurate reproduction?
My interest in mono isn't based in nostalgia. I didn't live the era, and don't have that reference to wax nostalgic in.
I do enjoy the music of the era. But that's no different than my enjoyment of any number of other genre.
What attracted me to mono can be appreciated in any musical genre, a diffuse room filling high fidelity sound - diffuse referring to a sound source that is not entirely place-able, unless you're right on top of the source. I realized this by listening to a single Bogen speaker in a clamshell box, that was essentially a free speaker that came as a part of a kit with a turntable that I was after. I ran my Hafler amp, with preamp in mono mode, and found it to be really nice variation to stereo hifi. It taught me just how nice "lofi" can be.
Its no less high fidelity than an excruciatingly precise stereo system, and is actually easier in casual listening. But the aural reproduction spectrum in no less accurate, unless you're sitting intently trying to envision a moment captured in stereo, and trying to realize a holographic soundstage imaging, and precise placement.
Is digital more accurate?
Its a format that never sat well with me; but in an odd conundrum, is the format that I record to, based on being pretty much forced to conform to a changing, decreasing media availability. With as complex as its become, I find my enjoyment in recording has steeply dropped the more complex it became, to a point where I don't have any desire to continue with it. Too much processing, even in simple two channel stereo recordings.
I've never cared for the digital sound either. I quit buying music when CD's came out, and only have a handful of commercial cd's. I bought my commercial music in the vinyl heydays, and never really moved away from it, except in my recording,.. so its not so much nostalgic for me.
I have a favorite musical analogy that made sense to me when I first heard it:
Analog is like watching your kid slide down a long rolling slide.
Digital is like kicking your kid down a steep staircase.
To me, digital, with its scalped 20k response isn't accurate, as analog life extends beyond that, and the old school engineers managed to capture that in analog (pre loudness wars).
So, what is accurate?