The problem with your theory is that is assumes the reflected sound is always apparent in the environment. In a properly set up omni system, with symmetrical room(very important) and placement on both sides, signals that are in phase, should be rendered perceptually as tightly imaged signals. This is the fundamental operation of stereo. The advantage of omnis is that in sounds that vary in phase/time delays in each channel correspondingly, such as hall/reverberation effects of a good orchestral recording, for example---- should allow the late reflections(approx. >5ms, minimum) to add the ambient feilds since you are essentially turnig the walls, front and sides, into massive phantom/virtual sources of sound(reflections). I can see how the confusion exists about natural sounds and their inherant directivity, however you msut realize these are essentially mono sources that produce their spatial information from the room itself, due to the differential vectors of reflected sound in the environment. Stereo, in contrast, is dependant on two sources to produce an apparent single source in the distance between the two speakers. THis is a psychoacoustic effect(flaw?) of human audiotry system. Two identical signals played over two speakers at teh same amplitude and phase will appear to eminate from the center of these two speakers. The same applies to omnipolar speakers. If the two channels are symmetrical(room, too) they should be able to image properly.
-Chris
docferdie said:
<font color='#000000'>Well I finally did it. I traded my omnicb center channel--which was matched to omni 60 bookshelves--for a Boston Acoustics VR-M Center. I have to say that I absolutely love it. I even auditioned the OM-C2 just to make sure. The sound that I didn't like with my old center was present in the OM-C2 as well.
This is my take on the matter. Omni polars are great for most music because most instruments radiate sound in a 360 degree pattern. The obvious exception of course are the horns--probably why trumpets sound so good on Klipsch speaker. For voice however Mirage's design totally falls apart because in conversation there is hardly any reflected sound. The vocal apparatus is in fact a horn where the trachea has a diameter of about 16 mm and the mouth has a diameter which is much larger; then you have the vocal cords which open and close to regulate pitch. I think that the center channel's main purpose is to make voice seem like live conversation so it is essential that the speaker be a direct radiating speaker.</font>
