agent2099

Are there any negative effects of having your speakers too close to the monitor? I remember reading this and wondered if there was any truth or seriousness to it.

In particular if I got a 5.1 speakers setup, the only place the center speaker would fit is on top of the monitor, which would be unusually close since the left and right fronts are at least a couple of inches away.

jumbojp

Should be fine as long as the speakers are video shielded

agent2099

and how would I determine this...

eedoon

Usually the speaker manufacturer mention either the speakers are shielded or not. But if there's no information, you can check that on your TV. Usually when TVs not accepting any signal, they goes to blue screen. Close your speaker to the screen. If your screen doesn't turn into red, then your speaker is shielded.

fmian

I don't know anything about blue or red screens, but you can tell if a speaker is not properly sheilded when the monitor/TV image starts to warp. Same thing as when you put a magnet next to the screen. Don't try it though, sometimes you can't get rid of the warping without a magnetic wand (I thing that's what they're called).
I haven't actually seen a set of speakers do that for a long time though. About 99% of speakers these days will be properly sheilded, and as you're talking about getting a 5.1 system, it's pretty much a given that they will be fine.
Really, it's nothing to worry about these days unless they're very very cheap speakers, or not specifically designed for computer use.