Went to look at a job today, Customer have small patio-deck area with "3 zones" of control for music volume (used to maintain backround music for partys) right now there is one amp feeding 3 xantech Rat1's (1 zone large deck, 1 zone patio, 1 zone small deck) each "zone" has 2 speakers. The problem is the "sweet spot" For each zone is small and sounds like S%$T. Was thinking of changing each zone to mono to balance the sound and need to do it after the Rat1's. Any ideas?

I would think some testing would be advised. You should be able to check out each zone to at least get an idea of the difference in sound between stereo and mono. There could be other factors in play. It may be underpowered, or it may benefit from equalization etc.. There is a general trend here to go to mono outdoors but sometimes stereo sounds great in this type of application.

The general reason to go to mono outdoors is the weird effects of spotty channel coverage when you are only in the range of one channel, or if one channel is definitely prominent...

Try this, tune your car stereo to classic rock radio and then pan to one side and listen to it for an hour or so... it will drive you insane.

'Mono' is not a bad word when it comes to Whole house distribution!

If you have a dedicated listening spot, stereo sounds better.

Why do you need to convert to mono 'after' the RAT-1's?

It's a lot easier to do it at the source input(Y-adapters) to the amp.

Converting 'speaker level' to mono is more money consuming(if anyone still makes one!).

Correct me if I am wrong, but this kills the stereo seperation and sounds really bad!

I have used an RDL summing amp in the past for a bunch of speakers in a line down the side of a pool or tennis court or for rock speakers along a path. It sounds much better than stereo.

TXMX2R - [Link: rdlnet.com]

It sounds like you have a phase problem or some real shite speakers. Remember speakers can be out of phase even if they are wired correctly. My guess is that they are actually wired out of phase. Mono will not fix this. Shoe had it, you need to test test test! If that doesn't work try som SM Paradigm speakers. You will need to run more wire and make sure the amp will deal with a 4ohm load. That will give you stereo at each speaker thus avoiding the problem Rick brought up.

I knew a guy who quoted single stereo all around for areas like that so that there was "stereo" sound everywhere...

I always thought that was a poor design because you are using twice as many amplifier channels, still getting the same area of coverage, and the stereo seperation will really not be any better than mono because the left and right portions of the speakers are not actually seperated!!.

I think that single stereo spoeakers are best used when only a single speaker is called for.

If you can go stereo in a distributed situation like a pub or a restuarant, i always say do it. Keep in mind, relfections in the room exist from both the left and right speakers and yes, it sounds better. The fear of hearing an instrument from one speaker and not the other one it's paired with sounds warranted on paper, but it's negligible in the big picture. The sense of separation and better fidelity and a more spacial ambience is worth the trade off ( if there even is one). mono saves money and labor, and without comparing the two side by side, many people wouldn't balk at the mono suystem as long as it was designed properly ( same goes for the stereo system)

You only have 'stereo seperation' if your running 'stereo' and happen to be sitting in the 'sweet spot' between two speakers.

Running mono does sound bad compared to sitting at the base of an equilateral triangle listening to stereo!

Whole house music(and bar music for the most part) will never be ideal for critical listening!

It is nice being able to hear the WHOLE song(both channels) at a given location when you are only in range of 1 speaker!

Replace all the speakers with single stereo speakers (provided you can add the wiring).
How many people when having an outdoor party are going to get Anal about the stereo sweetspots anyway?
All they are usually concerned about is the speakers not sounding too tinny, or if the volume levels are evenly disbursed without annoying hot-spots if anything.

I'm not saying your 'wrong' by any means!

I jsut do what works for the client.

Instead of changing the speakers to "single stereo speakers" i would change the amp to something like the Sonance 1250 where you can set the amp to mono where needed. You'll still be able to keep seperate zones and its better than y connectors IMO.

Mike

Fred from Capitol Sales turned me onto the Audioplex Mono-Mixer. It's great for outdoor and bathroom use where mono is preferable to stereo. I use it to take two channels into one speaker.

[Link: audioplex.com]

Dawn

As stated before, Mono is not a bad thing. Stereo is often over used. Kitchens and bathrooms often sound better with a summed output as when you walk around the space you don't lose information. Try listening to SPACE ODDITY by David Bowie. There are actually 2 versions of this song. It was originally released in mono. It was re-released in stereo. If you are not seated in a position to hear both channels you will only hear ground control or major Tom. Now in a kitchen where people are walking around it makes little sense to run stereo unless you know there is a primary listening area. This is very true for outdoor music as well. Especially if the speakers are far apart or along a pathway. That being said, If you are using volume controls I would not use the audioplex speaker level mixer, as it is an autoformer. You are much better off summing the line level signal.
[Link: audioplex.com]
Much better then a Y connector.

Need to go alittle more indepth. This system was installed about a few months ago by another company The system strickly feeds the patio-deck area. They have a five disk cd player feed a reciever/amp unit that has no option to bridge output. So I have to work with speaker level outputs, the rat1 is a volume control auto transfomer and I dont know If it would aloow me to do mono before it, so thats why I was looking to go after it. The speakers for the small deck and patio are in a landscaped area and some of the plantings block the sound so in spots you only hear one channel.
When they use it for patrys most the time it is for soft rock/easy music and it sounds alright buy when they use it for day to day for Fm radio it sounds bad. Was looking for an easy fix for them. Speaker replacement and wiring could be and option but also looking to give them lower price range option also.
We are in the proceess of designing a theather (25K+) for them at this time and looking to do alittle kissing up to get the install.