Stereo speakers to mono speaker

[tmcw]

I picked up this set of powered PC speakers, no name brand, power cord to one of the speakers, and two audio cables coming out of it, one going to the other speaker, and the other to a 3.5mm jack for plugging into an audio out source.

So, a typical cheap powered PC speakers setup.

Now, the sound is pretty decent, I must admit, from the 4 ohm, 3W speaker, but I say "speaker", because it's just coming out of one of the speakers, and not the one with the power cord coming out of it. The other speaker is ok, it's just the electronics going to it has probably a fried component or two. I did remove the wire from the speaker, and moved it to the working speakers circuit, and it does work ok.

Anyway, what I would like to do is remove one of the speakers, and wire it up so that the left and right channels come out of one speaker, so what's the best way to do this? I was thinking of getting a mono 3.5 jack and cable, wiring it up to the channel circuit side that still works (dunno if it's left or right, just that it's the one that the speaker without the power cord going to it), and then wire the other speaker to the working channel circuit.

Will that give me both left and right channels from the one remaining speaker? Is there anything I need to be careful of? Or is there a better way to do this with what's available?

I don't feel like trying to fix the broken channel circuit, and only want one speaker, but with both left and right channels coming from one speaker.

[petehall347]

Re: Stereo speakers to mono speaker

remove the wires from powered speaker and one wire from the socket where the other speaker plugs in . join one wire to the powered speaker and the other to the socket ..job done .
best see pics first to confirm my thoughts as it may not be as i imagined it .
basically you want to wire both speakers in series .

[tmcw]

Re: Stereo speakers to mono speaker

Thanks for your reply.

I've attached a couple of photos, on the trace side, you can see the jack input connections to the board to the bottom left, covered with the glue, and the other two connections at the top left of the board are going to the other speaker. Power from the transformer goes to the middle right.

On the component side of the board, you can see the white and black wires that go to the speaker that's in the same box as the board. This is the speaker that doesn't work when it was connected to it's circuit.

I need to scrutinise the board though, because I forget where I disconnected the white wire from! I used this wire to test the speaker on the other speakers circuit, and it worked ok, sounded like the volume decreased though, probably because the circuit was then driving 2 speakers for a moment.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Stereo speakers to mono speaker

Question too is do you need the amplifier still?

If you still need the amplifier, then I think it's worth while debugging and fixing, unless if the problem was due to a speaker going open.

Otherwise you really need to setup a mixer type circuit which will add complexity, you can't just use a mono plug unless you can tell your device to mix to one channel (left).

[petehall347]

Re: Stereo speakers to mono speaker

check this wire it looks like it might be broken