How does spatial auditory perception impact how we enjoy surround sound

Abstract

Surround sound has become an essential element of enormously popular home entertainment systems, with consumers becoming increasingly eager to invest in high-quality audio systems. While even a cursory web search can uncover numerous criteria, standards, and blogs describing how to select and set up surround-audio equipment, architectural effects are typically ignored or, at best, treated naively. However, architectural acoustics profoundly affect the perceptual experience of a surround-sound listener. Similarly, sound engineers, producers, and artists agonize over every aspect of soundtrack design and production, including the spatial cues embedded in a surround-sound recording, but they have no control over the acoustic environments in which consumers experience their art. How do the acoustics of surround-listening spaces influence the perceptual experiences of the ordinary listener? Is accurate sound localization a proper, desirable, or achievable goal? Would more loudspeakers or higher fidelity improve the surround experience of a typical consumer? These issues will be discussed, taking into account basic psychophysical issues as well as disheartening truths about how ordinary consumers experience sound from their expensive home entertainment systems.