Adaptive audio systems and sound reproduction systems

Abstract

A sound reproduction system comprises a plurality of loudspeakers (S1, S2) spaced from a listener at a location (M1, M2), and a loudspeaker drive means (H) for driving the loudspeakers (S1, S2) in response to a plurality of channels of a sound recording (x) of the type being suitable for playing normally through a plurality of reference speakers that are optimally positioned at locations that are displaced from the actual positions of the loudspeakers (S1, S2). The loudspeaker drive includes a filter (H), having a filter characteristic selected by minimising the difference between a desired sound field that would be created by playing the unfiltered sound recording (x) through the reference speakers and sound field reproduced at the listener location (M1, M2) by playing the recording through the speakers (S1, S2). This results in creating a local sound field at the listener location (M1, M2) which is substantially equivalent to the local field that would result from playing the unfiltered sound recording (x) through the reference speakers.