single speaker hookups

[PlacentaJuan]

hey, i am installing a stereo into my wifes new ke30 and i would like to hook up the single dash speaker without missing a left or right signal. (stereo channel)

is this possible?

i assume that i can not just join the front left + front right speaker wires to the one speaker, but not really understanding how the speaker signals work i was hoping someone could help me.

can i join the 2 positives together and just use one negative or something like that?

[river]

Hi,

No you can't do that. You can blow your amp. Also some amps have a separate earth to each speaker, as opposed to a common earth, and you can't join them together either.

You can join them together using a mixer or something like that, but I doubt its really worth it.

seeyuzz
river

[willwal98]

if you are running off an amp that supports tri mode you could use that. Otherwise I don't think you can do it without some sort of special crossover.. The negative is just an earth, nothing to do with the singal, if you join the +ve's you'll have mono sound. BTW this is only based on my experience which is by no means extensive.

[Squid]

Hook it up to one speaker output and swing the balance all the way over to that side?

[BigWorm]

Um, really now, would anyone go to the trouble of hooking up an amp & then only running a single front speaker???

Jesse, you need to either whack 2 speakers in the front don't be a pissant!), or get some 5.1 surround sound to utilise the centre speaker position.

[willwal98]

Yeah Bigworm has a point. The center speaker won't really improve anything unless you have something to utilise it properly like some sort of processor.

[PlacentaJuan]

ok thanks for help/suggestion guys, my wife will have to put up with 1 front channel for now.

there are 2 aftermarket rear speakers anyway, otherwise the balance idea is a good one.

if the car survives the next few months i will definately put new front speakers in.

thanks again!

[Cuzzo]

I think if the balance is fully thrown to one side, you still may miss out on right/left channel noises as some songs/radio has this. But just wack some into the pacel shelf run new speaker wire and walla.

[Hiro]

I think if the balance is fully thrown to one side, you still may miss out on right/left channel noises as some songs/radio has this. But just wack some into the pacel shelf run new speaker wire and walla.

It probably depends on the way that the radio/head unit runs it's balance setup. Some will just progressively decrease the volume in one channel whilst upping the volume in another, so with a single speaker and balance set fully left for instance you'd still be only hearing left-channel sounds. Others have it set up so that once off centre the signals are mixed until a full-side balance gives you true mono sound, with everything coming through the one channel

[HAVABEER]

i'm just curious...what would happen if you put 2 positives (left + right) and negatives into a spearker....would it just stuff the speaker?

[WA_TRD_83]

hmm.. a stereo head unit to the factory center speaker..
firstly - any sort of quality sound will be straight out the window..

but if you really must try it out - perhaps connect a positive from one channel (eg +left) and the negative from the other channel (-right).. a lot like when you bridge an amp to run 1 subwoofer ..

worth a shot.. dunno - I've never bothered keeping the stereo factory in any of my cars!

Damo
TRD 83

[NeoNasty]

Just connect one speaker. Ie. Left or right, then turn the head unit onto Mono. BAM!

One channel. DO NOT connect both channels to one speaker or KA BLAMO!

[barned01]

can you set the head unit itself to simply just play in mono?
ie set it to mono and get mono sound out of all the speakers (rear left will be a mono sound, rear right will be a mono sound).
and then just hook either the left or right speaker wire to the front middle.
is there an aux output?, you could connect just the single outbut to an amp to drive that single front speaker.

[PlacentaJuan]

not sure if it does mono, but there are 2 kenwoods in the back so i want to keep them stereo.

its for my wife anyway she probably wont even notice if she is missing a channel!!

i will definately upgrade the speakers later, i am just doing the dodgy because she wont drive it unless there is a radio/cd player in the car.

i know i am whipped so stfu

[slapper]

just wire up the kenwoods and forget the in-dash speaker even exists.
your factory speaker won't have the power handling or range that your kenwoods do ...

If you really really really want to use it, there are ways ... but they will involve mixing your left and right signals somewhere to make asingle channel that contains both left and rights.
If your new stereo has line-level outputs, stuff them into a simple mixer and, from there, into one channel of a cheap as chips amp ... then wire the output from that channel to your dash speaker ... realistically: not worth the effort!

cheers,
Slapper