phantom center channel

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Where would outdoor speakers need to be placed in order to take advantage of the phantom center channel that can be created with using the new AMP and Sonance Mariner Speakers? If I were to get two mariners and the amp, the mariners would most likely be a bit behind the viewer/listener.

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melvimbeAnswer

The ideal/expected placement for the speakers would be to the left and right of the viewing screen, in front of the viewer. If you place the speakers behind, you're not going to get nearly the effect. Honestly having the speakers behind you like that will be more, or as much, of an issue for the left and right channels behind you.

Personally, I don't have the speakers in the front for myself either, they are actually off to the left. However, TV/projector watching is very much a secondary purpose for the outdoor speakers, music being primary. The times I have used it is really to have a sports game on in the background or that sort of thing. If you plan on doing 'series' TV watching, I'd definitely look to put the speakers to the left and right of the viewing area.

Danny

melvimbeAnswer

The ideal/expected placement for the speakers would be to the left and right of the viewing screen, in front of the viewer. If you place the speakers behind, you're not going to get nearly the effect. Honestly having the speakers behind you like that will be more, or as much, of an issue for the left and right channels behind you.

Personally, I don't have the speakers in the front for myself either, they are actually off to the left. However, TV/projector watching is very much a secondary purpose for the outdoor speakers, music being primary. The times I have used it is really to have a sports game on in the background or that sort of thing. If you plan on doing 'series' TV watching, I'd definitely look to put the speakers to the left and right of the viewing area.

Danny

D

drenAuthor

Contributor II

Thanks. It's primary function is music and being able to project that sound out to "cover" the large open area. Special event and the occasional movie would be the secondary function.

K

Kumar

The phantom channel is just another way to describe the stereo image illusion, where music is concerned. Outdoors for music listening it will be heard just the way it is heard indoors; if the speakers face the listening area, and the two speakers and the listening area form three points of a triangle with roughly equal sides.
However, this limits the good sound quality driven by this phantom to a small part of the outdoors space, and listeners that are closer to the left/right speakers will hear the closest speaker louder to that extent than the further speaker, thereby hearing just one of the two channels as they get closer to one speaker. Which is why it often makes sense to have the signal run in mono format, so while the smaller part of the listening area does NOT get the stereo image/phantom channel, a much larger part of it hears all the music content. Fortunately, the Sonos Amp offers this option of music play. And it is easy to toggle back to stereo and see what suits the particular occasion.

K

Kumar

Wiki has it right:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_center

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