atrium 65sdi - wiring 2 (or more) as mono

sakendrick

Just got my atrium 65sdi's. I figured since you can wire both left and right stereo outs into a single speaker there would be a way to wire 2 speakers (or 3) as mono only. My deck wraps around the house and I want one speaker on one side and the other on the other. So it doesn't make sense to wire them as lefts and rights. Is this doable, and what's the right way?

Also just a comment - love the crispness of the highs and mids in these speakers. I was kind of dissappointed with the lack of bass, even without the port covered (I'll likely have to end up covering the port). THe reviews I read suggested 65s (over lower numbered models) for better bass, but there isn't much there. With a sub they sound great but I don't think an outdoor sub will work for my needs - these have to be mounted and out of the way.

squeeb

Welcome to the club. Wonder if you were the 1st member in 2012 - you don't win anything - just wondering. I believe the only way to wire to get "mono" would be to single wire (left/right) and change your AVR from stereo to mono. Hopefully it has that option. I use 5 channel stereo but have the one speaker that is off on its own as the center channel connection.

BTW - the closer you get the speaker to a corner, eave, etc. will increase bass.

sakendrick

hmm.. unfortunately my stereo doesn't have a mono switch, especially not for speaker B only (I want to keep my inside speakers stereo). I thought there was a way I could cross the outputs some how then wire the speakers in parallel, but probably messes things up both for the amp and the speaker (impedance and all that).

Thanks for the tip on the speaker placement... I'm really not sure if I need to plug the port or not - while there is an overhang that the speakers would be mounted under, the region is susceptible to both hurricanes and nor-easters, and water tends to get in everything including sealed windows. When I was testing them, they were free standing on speaker stands.

[Deleted User]

Hello Sakendrick,
Welcome to CP. Each Atrium 65sdi can be used as a single speaker reproducing both the left and right audio channels or a single speaker reproducing only one channel. If the concern is that the speakers will be too far apart to reproduce any kind of stereo image, then follow the instructions on pages 9 and 11 of the owner's manual to go from the factory setting of "single input" to "dual input". Each speaker will then be producing what is essentially a monophonic signal combining left and right channels.
I hope this is what you were looking for.
Regards, Ken

sakendrick

Thanks Ken - yes I reviewed that information but that tells me how to connect one speaker to the source. So I take both left and right from the amp to the one speaker as dual input. Now how do I connect the second speaker? do I connect a simliar left right wire pair to the posts on the first speaker, and wire to the second speaker as dual input?

If so, can I connect a third the same way, or does that start to cause problems?

[Deleted User]

Hello,
In the past I would always recommend the Adcom GFS3 speaker selector, but it doesn't look as though Adcom still makes it. It was a good quality three speaker selector that allowed up to three speakers to be connected and a "protection" button kept the load high enough to prevent problems with multiple speakers. I would also highly recommend that people use a separate power amp to drive their out-of-doors speakers. Ambient noise levels tend to be high and there's not a great deal of reflective surfaces, so a high amount of the total sound, produced by the speakers, never reaches the listener. You can do the speaker-to-speaker parallel wiring, but the total impedance will become low, meaning the receiver/amplifier needs to produce more current at higher playing volumes. At fairly moderate volumes less current is needed, but a good quality 200 Watt power amp is really the correct way.
Cheers, Ken