iphone to mono speaker?

[welldeservedpaunch]

Hi all,

I've been lurking for a few months. Thanks for all the great information here; I love all the charts and graphs! Data is important.

I recently started working from home, and with everything else going on in the house, it is useful to have some music playing sometimes. I find the music from my iphone is actually pretty good, except it doesn't seem to have any bass (not surprising given the size of the drivers). But vocals are, to me, surprisingly good. For comparison, I have a small Oontz bluetooth speaker that has more bass, but sounds muddy (sorry for the non-technical descriptions; that's just the word that comes to mind). I'd like to spend as little money as possible but upgrade the sound.

I've tried several headphones, and can't seem to find something that is comfortable for long (more than 30 minutes). Either the fit becomes uncomfortable, my ears get warm, or the sound starts to bother me. So I'm pretty much ignoring headphones. (I haven't tried anything over $200 so maybe I just need more expensive headphones...)

Since this would just be casual listening, what do you think about having a single (mono) speaker? Several of the reviews mention how great music can sound in mono. Something like one Kali LP-6 v2, driven by my iphone + Apple DAC/dongle?

If that's a good idea, how would I connect something like that? There doesn't seem to be a single cable that takes the stereo output from the dongle and converts to something the LP-6 can take (XLR, TRS, RCA)? But some other posts indicate potential problems if you don't do this correctly.

Sorry, too many questions in one post, but they are all related. I'm open to suggestions for different approaches.

 

[BJL]

From my experience you won't get a very good result playing back stereo audio as mono (through a single speaker). Original mono recordings, on the other hand, sound better, sometimes much better, played through a single speaker. There must be an inexpensive stereo box that would work for your purposes. Sorry if I didn't really answer your question.

 

[staticV3]

@BJL could you please point me towards some native mono tracks to compare against downmixes? I'm curious

 

[astr0b0y]

Why not try and Apple Homepod mini?
There‘s a trillion Bluetooth speakers (most mono) up to $200 that have quite nice DSP and sound quite good for casual listening.

 

[BJL]

@BJL could you please point me towards some native mono tracks to compare against downmixes? I'm curious

That's a tough one, for "mono era" music I go out of my way to avoid "fold down" mono (i.e. stereo combined to make mono), and where there is an original mono mix, there is no fold down. There are some recordings with both stereo and mono versions, but the mixes (and sometimes the takes) are different. If you want to hear some true mono mixes, here are some suggestions (not knowing your taste in music!): Every Beatles album through the White Album; all singles released on the Motown label through about 1972, all singles released on the Stax/Volt labels through about 1971; Dr. John "Gris Gris"; Grateful Dead first album; almost all Rolling Stones tracks prior to Aftermath (their blues/R&B albums); most of Thelonious Monk's recordings on Riverside; Booker T. & the MGs album Green Onions; Charles Mingus "Pithecanthropus Erectus" and "The Clown". For the Beatles, Dr. John, Grateful Dead, there were simultaneous stereo mix releases, you could compare between stereo and true mono using a cheap mono switch when playing back stereo tracks.

If you like soul music/R&B, many of the hits were made with dedicated mono mixes, and then with dedicated stereo mixes for the LP releases, the Temptations, Four Tops, Supremes most singles are mono, most albums are stereo.

And of course, there are hundreds or thousands of classical and jazz recordings that were originally and only released in mono.

Does this help?

 

[staticV3]

Massively! Thank you so much.

 

[welldeservedpaunch]

From my experience you won't get a very good result playing back stereo audio as mono (through a single speaker). Original mono recordings, on the other hand, sound better, sometimes much better, played through a single speaker. There must be an inexpensive stereo box that would work for your purposes. Sorry if I didn't really answer your question.

Makes me think maybe I was going the wrong direction, trying to get mono out of a stereo output. Thanks!

 

[welldeservedpaunch]

Why not try and Apple Homepod mini?
There‘s a trillion Bluetooth speakers (most mono) up to $200 that have quite nice DSP and sound quite good for casual listening.

Amir has two reviews of Lifestyle speakers (at least, in the speaker review table), the (now discontinued) Apple Homepad and a Klipsch. Neither did well. Of course, his reviews are probably aimed at more critical listening than my purpose.

Are there any resources for comparing bluetooth speakers? Amir's review of the Audioengine A5+ is good, but that's more than I'm willing to spend. Audioengine has some less expensive speakers (A1 or B2); has anyone had experience with them? Or something similar?

 

[staticV3]

@welldeservedpaunch oluv's gadgets (more videos on patreon) and alan ross reviews are fantastic resources for BT speakers imo, though both are on the more approachable end of objective analysis.
I can personally recommend Soundcore speakers due to their built-in 9-band GEQ which you can control via their App.
With the right equipment you can calibrate them to your environment and create different presets for different places/moods. All settings are stored in hardware.

Take a look at the Soundcore Boost, Motion+, or Motion Boom.

 

[welldeservedpaunch]

@welldeservedpaunch oluv's gadgets (more videos on patreon) and alan ross reviews are fantastic resources for BT speakers imo, though both are on the more approachable end of objective analysis.
I can personally recommend Soundcore speakers due to their built-in 9-band GEQ which you can control via their App.
With the right equipment you can calibrate them to your environment and create different presets for different places/moods. All settings are stored in hardware.
View attachment 202809
Take a look at the Soundcore Boost, Motion+, or Motion Boom.

Thanks for the links, I'll start digging into those options.

 

[soapsuds]

Amir has two reviews of Lifestyle speakers (at least, in the speaker review table), the (now discontinued) Apple Homepad and a Klipsch. Neither did well. Of course, his reviews are probably aimed at more critical listening than my purpose.

Are there any resources for comparing bluetooth speakers? Amir's review of the Audioengine A5+ is good, but that's more than I'm willing to spend. Audioengine has some less expensive speakers (A1 or B2); has anyone had experience with them? Or something similar?

I'd second the HomePod mini recommendation. A stereo pair of them is even better. They use AirPlay over Wifi instead of Bluetooth, so the sound is better.

I listen to music on them every day, and I think the sound quality is phenomenal for such small devices. They aren't suitable for very big rooms, but for typical home-office rooms they are just fine. Also a really cheap way to get multi-room audio too.

 

[staticV3]

Here's the Homepod Mini's frequency response:

Full review

 

[soapsuds]

Here's the Homepod Mini's frequency response:
View attachment 203318
Full review

I know this site is about measurements, but regrettably I don't understand that graph or the review. Is the implication that the speakers are poor?

 

[DVDdoug]

Makes me think maybe I was going the wrong direction, trying to get mono out of a stereo output. Thanks!

Most commercial mixes are mixed to be "mono compatible" so they sound good on a mono radio or TV. Sometimes amateurs use "widening effects" make the vocals (or other sounds) out-of-phase and then you loose the vocals or get other weirdness in mono. That usually shows-up when someone uses it as a ringtone.

So a bluetooth mono speaker should be OK but with "regular connections" the problem is mixing the left & right electrical signals. You can't just "short" the connections together.* It's an easy thing to do with a mixer or it's an easy circuit to make (If you know a little electronics) but stereo-to-mono mixing is not built-into most amplifiers or powered speakers.


* It's OK to connect inputs together (i.e. connect multiple amplifiers to a CD player) but you should NEVER directly-connect outputs together.

 

[velasfloyd]

life is too short. Just buy the soundcore (anker) motion+ and be happy

It is just perfect to enjoy your music.

if you after some time think is not enough, you can spend 62445753454 hours reading here or elsewhere, plus youtube, to learn which "pro" speakers are the best for you.

nit: You will not.

setup:

iphone -> bluetooth -> motion+

if you feel pro, try this other setup:

iphone -> apple lightning to 3.5mm dongle -> cable 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio -> motion+

 

[staticV3]

I know this site is about measurements, but regrettably I don't understand that graph or the review. Is the implication that the speakers are poor?

You can click on the triangle above each graph to get an explanation of what the graph means and how to interpret it.

 

[welldeservedpaunch]

Most commercial mixes are mixed to be "mono compatible" so they sound good on a mono radio or TV. Sometimes amateurs use "widening effects" make the vocals (or other sounds) out-of-phase and then you loose the vocals or get other weirdness in mono. That usually shows-up when someone uses it as a ringtone.

So a bluetooth mono speaker should be OK but with "regular connections" the problem is mixing the left & right electrical signals. You can't just "short" the connections together.* It's an easy thing to do with a mixer or it's an easy circuit to make (If you know a little electronics) but stereo-to-mono mixing is not built-into most amplifiers or powered speakers.


* It's OK to connect inputs together (i.e. connect multiple amplifiers to a CD player) but you should NEVER directly-connect outputs together.

I'm not going to splice cables, if that's what you mean. If bluetooth is just combining the left and right signals, then perhaps it does something similar to stereo -> mono cables (e.g. link). So get one of those, and a single speaker that measures well, and seems like the audio should be better than a (relatively) tiny bluetooth speaker?

If Klippel just uses one speaker, what kind of signal are Erin and Amir feeding it? Just a single left or right, or are they doing something more complex?

 

[welldeservedpaunch]

life is too short. Just buy the soundcore (anker) motion+ and be happy

It is just perfect to enjoy your music.

if you after some time think is not enough, you can spend 62445753454 hours reading here or elsewhere, plus youtube, to learn which "pro" speakers are the best for you.

nit: You will not.

setup:

iphone -> bluetooth -> motion+

if you feel pro, try this other setup:

iphone -> apple lightning to 3.5mm dongle -> cable 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio -> motion+

Easiest thing is probably doing just that. But sometimes the fun is in the journey!

I have a few smaller bluetooth speakers (smaller than the motion+) and I'm hoping to get something that sounds better. Motion+ almost certainly is better. But I don't need a speaker with a chargeable battery, and I'm not so space constrained that I need one that small either. So it seems like a bit of less-than-optimal solution.