Sourcing to a mono receiver?

[Drugolf]

What is the best way to source all of my existing regular stereo music, whether it be streaming, CD, turntable etc, to my now fully restored Fisher 500 mono receiver. Is it as simple as a stereo RCA or 3.5 that transitions to a lone RCA by combining both channels into the lone RCA?

 

[jgannon]

I just use a 6 inch y-splitter for my 500, which I use to connect a Garrard Type A turntable. It works well enough. The phono leads don't fit 100% into the splitter, but they meet the edge of the splitter and work well enough.

 

[gtv2000]

That might work for some sources, not so well for others. When I tried it with a stereo bluetooth receiver into a mono amp it was distorted, so I built a wye adapter with a resistor in each leg to isolate the left and right outputs from each other. Depends on how the outputs are designed.

 

[century tek]

I built a simple stereo to mono adapter for my Scott mono integrated amplifier using two 1MΩ resistors on each right and left positive. Coming from the tape out on my stereo Pioneer integrated amplifier, it stays in stereo but sends a mono signal to the Scott.

 

[Lavane]

What is the best way to source all of my existing regular stereo music, whether it be streaming, CD, turntable etc, to my now fully restored Fisher 500 mono receiver. Is it as simple as a stereo RCA or 3.5 that transitions to a lone RCA by combining both channels into the lone RCA?

Do a search for a "suming box". I built one to combine stereo line level to mono. Three rca jacks, a few resistors and a small box of your choice.

 

[mhardy6647]

Do a search for a "suming box". I built one to combine stereo line level to mono. Three rca jacks, a few resistors and a small box of your choice.View attachment 1354855

and/or read this --
https://www.rane.com/note109.html

 

[Lavane]

and/or read this --
https://www.rane.com/note109.html

The unbalanced one is what I built. Cheap and easy.

 

[Drugolf]

Thanks!

 

[macyjrm]

If you stream via a phone or tablet, you can configure your device’s output to mono within the settings. Works fine.

 

[2ndGenSansui]

You could always use a minidsp to sum the signal digitally.

 

[ivan100000]

How did it work out?

I too have one of the Fisher 500 mono receivers--my favorite receiver ever--and I run a dedicated mono system. As JGannon above mentions, I too run a Y-connector to link my Garrard Type A to the receiver.

 

[robert_kc]

I have a Fisher 500 mono receiver in my bedroom. Both Chromecast Audio and an older CD player have a Y cable that combines L&R into mono. (Suitable cables are available from Amazon.) No problem. Yes, I've read the "Why Not Wye" article, and IME the alleged problems of "possible damage", or "severe signal loss" have never occurred. (I also use a Y cable to combine Surround Left and Surround Right from my Oppo universal player. Oppo confirmed via email this is OK, and in my experience it works OK.) I'm not an electrical engineer - but I don't see a problem with combining line-level (i.e., low voltage) analog signals from a CD player via a Y cable. (I would NOT combine the speaker outputs from an amp unless the manufacturer stated it's OK.)