The time domain response of some systems for sound reproduction

The perception in a listener of the existence of a “virtual” source of sound at a prescribed spatial position can be produced by ensuring that the acoustic signals at the listener's ears faithfully replicate those that would be produced by a “real” source at the same position. When loudspeakers are used to transmit the signals, it is necessary to pass the signals intended for presentation at the listener's ears through a matrix of filters that provide the inverse of the matrix of transfer functions that relates the loudspeaker input signals to the listener's ear signals. The characteristics of such filter matrices are profoundly influenced by the conditioning of the matrix to be inverted. This filter design problem is reviewed here by representing the loudspeakers as simple point monopole sources the head of the listener as a rigid sphere. The case of a virtual acoustic imaging system that uses two loudspeakers in order to reproduce the signals at the two ears is first described in some detail and previous work is reviewed. It is confirmed that the time domain response of the reproduced field is of long duration at frequencies where the inversion problem is ill-conditioned. The influence of the presence of the listener's head on this time domain behaviour is also evaluated. The principle is then extended to four input-four output reproduction systems and the computational model is used to explain some previous experimental observations. Finally, the conditioning of five input-four output systems is also examined and shown to have some potentially desirable characteristics.