Perceptual Investigation of Image Placement with Ambisonics for Non-centred Listeners

Ambisonics is a scalable spatial audio technique that attempts to present a sound scene to listeners over as large an area as possible. A localisation experiment was carried out to investigate the performance of a first and third order system at three listening positions one in the centre and two off-centre. The test used a reverse target-pointer adjustment method to determine the error, both signed and absolute, for each combination of listening position and system. The signed error was used to indicate the direction and magnitude of the shifts in panning angle introduced for the off-centre listening positions. The absolute error was used as a measure of the performance of the listening position and systems combinations for a comparison of their overall performance. A comparison was made between the degree of image shifting between the two systems and the robustness of their off-centre performance.