Size and Shape of Listening Area Reproduced by Three-dimensional Multichannel Sound System with Various Numbers of Loudspeakers

摘要

A wide listening area is necessary so that several people can listen to a multichannel sound program together. It is considered that the size of the listening area depends on the number of loudspeakers. To examine the relationship between the number of loudspeakers and the size of listening area that maintains spatial impressions of a three-dimensional multichannel sound heard at the central position, two subjective evaluation experiments were carried out. The first experiment showed that the listening area broadens by increasing the number of loudspeakers. The second experiment showed that the shape of the listening area is dependent on the arrangements of loudspeakers. On the basis of the experimental results, a new parameter for estimating the shape of listening area is proposed.