It turns out that by manipulating the phase of a pair of speaker drivers, a sort of pseudo-surround effect can be created, kind of like the “stereo wide” switch that you see on old boom boxes. When you combine this with speakers to cover the front three channels, you can create a speaker that can deliver surround sound from one location.

We decided to check out a couple of speakers that attempt to do the seemingly impossible. The Mirage UNI-Theater combines the front three channels into a single long and sleek tubelike enclosure, while the M&K MP-4512 goes one further by including a pair of drivers for the surround channels.

Mirage UNI-Theater
One of the key fundamental differences between the way a movie theater sets up its sound system and the way most home theaters are arranged is that in a commercial theater, the three front speakers are all positioned right behind the screen. This ensures that the sonic picture always matches the visual picture and that your attention isn’t drawn away from the action up on the screen. That’s great if your screen is 30 feet wide, as you’re still going to get plenty of separation between the speakers, but most of us don’t have 30-foot screens at home––it’s usually more like 30 inches.

Mirage’s UNI-Theater speaker uses a tweeter module that rests just above the woofer. The backside of the module helps to disperse sound coming from the woofer in an even, circular pattern.

Getting a nice big soundstage from a home theater generally means spreading the speakers well beyond the width of the screen, and the center channel is used to lock at least the dialog onto the picture. But while normal direct radiating speakers tend to sit at the points that define the boundary of the soundstage, Mirage has long been a proponent of omni- directional dispersion to broaden the sonic picture. The company feels that most of the sound you hear should be reflected by the room rather than heard directly from the speaker, and its Omnipolar models are designed to do this.