Two mono center TV speakers out of phase?

Just guessing, but maybe he is referring to phase differences of reflections off of the wall behind the tv set. The path length from one center speaker (say the top one) to that wall and back to that speaker is different than the path length from the bottom center speaker to that wall and then to the top center speaker. Perhaps that could result in some degree of frequency response irregularity.

Regards,
-- Al

Haven't heard the out of phase comment, but have heard 2 closely spaced speakers playing the same signal can have comb filtering effects (destructive interference affecting frequency response=peaks & nulls) Think your speakers are far enough apart that the effect would be minimal. I use 2 center channel speakers on either side of a 100" diag. screen, helps balance apparent "image size" between stereo front L & R and the center channel.

If the speakers are different distances to your listening position, the sound waves from the two speakers will arrive at different times and can cancel each other out, or amplify each other, at the various different frequencies. I suspect that is what was meant. Even moving your head a few inches can cause this with the higher frequencies.

I don't think that putting mono speakers above and below the TV will make it sound like the sound is coming from the TV. The sound will still come from the speakers above and below the TV. That's what mono is and does. You need stereo, not mono, to do what you want to do.

Good thoughts in the preceding posts, except that I would respectfully disagree with this statement:

I don't think that putting mono speakers above and below the TV will make it sound like the sound is coming from the TV. The sound will still come from the speakers above and below the TV. That's what mono is and does. You need stereo, not mono, to do what you want to do.

There is no difference between a pair of stereo signals with identical left and right content (or in this case, top and bottom), and a mono signal fed to two identically placed speakers. You can easily verify that by playing a mono recording through your system; the result will be a focused image centered between the speakers, assuming the speakers and amplifier are connected in phase, and that there are no significant channel imbalances.

Although in BOTH cases I believe that Hhiggins is correct that if the speakers are too close together, comb filtering effects can occur at frequencies which are high enough to make the effects audibly significant.

Regards,
-- Al

I had an extra speaker when setting up my system. I tried one for the center and two next to each other. The pair sounded much better. I laid them down with the tops facing each other. Ran a Y splitter to 2 channel amp to run the speakers. It worked great for many years.

If you put one speaker up high and one down low, you will get the signals at different times which could muddy up the sound?