Split center speaker for "centered" effect? (1 Viewer)

[techtheater]

I am building a home theater and my "screen" is not going to be acoustically transparent (it is actually a painted sheet of MDF). As such, I cannot place the center speaker in my 5.1 system BEHIND the screen...though that location is the "ideal" as I understand it. So, I wonder what would happen if I bought two smaller speakers and put one directly above the screen (at the center) and one directly below the screen (also at the center). I assume that I could then just splice them both onto the same front center channel output from my amp/receiver and that my brain would average their locations to produce a sound that seems to be emanating from the middle of the screen. Yes? No? Seems like it should work... Anyone ever tried something like this? What am I missing? Can I just split the cable and run them both in parallel?

 

[schan1269]

Big issues aside(and Yamaha, amongst a couple speaker manufacturers tried "dual center"...un-successfully)...
If you did that, you don't want to run it any other way than through an impedance matching speaker switch, just wire up one side...
http://www.amazon.com/Speaker-Selector-Impedance-Matching-Output/dp/B002I9XKTE/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1354777173&sr=1-1&keywords=impedance+matching+speaker+selector (and yes I know this is for 4 pairs. I thought, a while back, there was a 2 pair with impedance matching...but not showing)

 

[Jason Charlton]

I wouldn't do it.

A vast majority of HTs place a single center just above or just below the screen - aimed slightly up or down to the listener. Placing the speaker close to the screen edge won't produce any "weird" imaging effects.

IMO, trying to Frankenstein a solution like you describe is going to cause more headaches and cost way too much for what you'd wind up with.

 

[techtheater]

Ok...i guess i will have to re-think things a bit. I was really trying to get the center channel sound to come "from" the screen...but it sounds like below is my only option. Thanks.
P.S. I will continue to monitor this post for the next 6 months or so...if anyone else has any ideas.