Subjective Appraisal of Loudspeaker Directivity for Multichannel Reproduction

A group of subjective experiments considering the loudspeaker directivity characteristics for five-channel audiovisual reproduction was examined. A large number of tests were performed with a screened and trained listening panel. The effects of listening position, loudspeaker directivity, and program were examined. Frontal and surround loudspeaker directivity characteristics were considered separately. Certain findings suggest that de facto standard approaches may not be optimal in terms of loudspeaker directivity.