mono channel speaker

Have any of you ever wired a single speaker to recieve both the right and left channel signals from a head unit to play like a mono channel? I have a job comming up working on a car like Christen that has one speaker in the dash that I would like to wire to play like a center channel without the use of an amp. Without playing around and damaging equipment I was thinking about trying diodes on the positive leads from both channels. What do you guys think? other options????? P.S. I am building kick panels for 6.5 coax speakers so the center channel is not really needed, but would be a nice touch.(owner/installer)

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Yes, you could get a center-channel effect by connecting a single speaker across both positive leads of the right and left channels   I don't know why you think diodes would help, but they won't.  If you want to get a "real" center channel, there are several outboard processors avaiable that can create anything from a true Dolby 5.1 system to a simple center fill system (I use a Carver center channel processor for this purpose.)Support the12volt.com

I'm not an electronics expert, but the only diodes I've seen are for low power electronics. I've never heard of them used for this purpose. I can see what you want to do -- prevent current from going the "wrong way", but I don't think it works like that! (Although, if you actually figure out something neat with that, let me know! I would be curious...) Now, I have my sub bridged mono, so if your amp can be bridged, you can do it that way. If your amp can handle a 2ohm load, it should handle a 4ohm speaker, bridged. I have an amp driving my front L & R speakers plus a sub (tri-way mode). I suppose I could torture my amp a little more and leech off of the bridged wires that the sub uses (before my passive crossover) and run that to the front, but I see 2 big problems: 1) it could be too much of a load, as it'd be driving the mid at the same time as the fronts, and 2) it's hard to control the volume (although, I could use an L-pad). And I don't want a separate amp just for a center channel. So, what's left? The head-unit? I have been trying to think of a good wiring scheme for a center-channel for years. Check out this page, and skip to near the bottom: http://allmanmusic.homestead.com/tips.html. Now that's a good idea, and that might work with a "conventional" amp, but I doubt it would work like that with most car audio amps (especially head-units), because they are wired so differently internally. OK, I have to restate that I'm not an electronics expert, but I don't think that you can just wire the grounds together like that with most car audio equipment, but it did give me an idea, and as soon as I order some resistors, I may try some experimentation. I could elaborate, but I plan to whip out the multimeter and do some testing first; I wouldn't want to give anyone some bad ideas and have them blow up their amp and get upset with me. So, I'll just leave it as, "Don't you try it, but I'm willing to sacrifice my equipment for the cause of knowledge and better audio." ;-) If you do anything based on that article, you do so at your own risk, as I've already decided it won't work quite like that. Well, that's my disclaimer. :-) I would like to know if there's a better way to do this.    Maybe someone actually has this all figured out.

Sure, you could buy a processor, but then you've got to find a good place to install it, and maybe add an amp, not to mention the cost of the whole operation. (In the past, the cheapest processors I found were in the $300 range.) I saw the messages about the Clarion SRK5 center channel, which looks pretty slick, and at $160 seems more affordable than other solutions I've seen. Unfortunately, the only review I saw (a quick Google -- I'm sure there are more reviews) was fairly negative. So, I'm not convinced that this is necessarily a great way to go. Besides, where's the fun in buying something that works out of the box? ;-) Seriously, it seems like it should be a "simple" wiring issue. :-) When you say it's a floating ground, does that mean that the - lines are being driven as well as the +? I hope that I can test this with my meter (by seeing a voltage on the - lines). If this is the case, then it is like I said previously -- his diagram wouldn't work, and like you say, it'll be a short. In which case, I hope to try an alternative wiring scheme. :-) (Are they designed this way to generate more power?) Not that I'm suggesting that I want to do it this way, but why couldn't you "bridge mono" (kind of like with the sub), only using a 4ohm resistor inline to present a proper load to the h-u's amp? Actually, I'm a bit confused why on that web site the guy suggests wiring it the way he does (by bringing both + signals to a single speaker terminal). I'd like to try it, or something similar, though, to see if it works differently than the bridged mono, which I've already tried with mixed results.

There is a vast difference between a 'simple wiring issue" of adding a bridged speaker to your front channel and mounting in in the center of your dash, and adding a genuine center channel.  A genuine center channel requires a processor and yes a seperate amplifier.Support the12volt.com