A single nondirective speaker over a wide audience produces unacceptable volume variation.

Evidence

The problem is that the path length variation is too large (2.2–30 m), and this results in a very high SPL variation. The arrangement would also have a very poor direct-toreverberant ratio over most of the audience and would be prone to feedback. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2523

Related

• Single-speaker directivity cannot produce even coverage across an audience (similarity 0.85)
• Large path-length variation causes poor direct-to-reverberant ratio and feedback (similarity 0.81)
• Auditorium speaker placement creates extreme sound level variation from front to back (similarity 0.79)
• Concentrating loudspeakers at one point yields the best direct-to-reverberant ratio for a space (similarity 0.78)