Rip stereo to mono

I have done many times in home installs. It works well with two opposite Y cables. One combines the signal and the other splits it again so it can go to two channels. The cables can be used on a CD player output or any stereo device. I've never heard any adverse effects with solid state equipment.

Thanks to all for the help. Will check out Audacity.
Doug

It still easier to convert the stereo signal to mono using Y cables.

Not good practice, IMO. To the extent that the signals on the two channels differ, the output stages that drive the two channels will fight each other, adversely affecting sonics.

Another way to put it is that the output stage of each channel will have to drive the stereo component of the signal into a load impedance equal to the output impedance of the stage driving the other channel, which will be very low compared to the impedances it is designed to drive.

Regards,
-- Al

It still easier to convert the stereo signal to mono using Y cables.

Al is right about Audacity, it's fairly easy to convert stereo tracks to mono using it, though I haven't tried it with FLAC files. Instructions are here.

Wouldn't it be easier to make the rooms mono?

Any decent audio editing program should be able to do that. Although I am not specifically familiar with it, I suggest that you check out the free program Audacity. Its latest version provides FLAC support, and it is well regarded. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

I use a Windows-only professional program called Sony Sound Forge Pro, which is expensive, but I would expect its less expensive consumer-grade counterpart, Sound Forge Audio Studio (shown at the same link) to be suitable as well.

Regards,
-- Al