  The sweet spot can be interpreted as the region where acoustic sources create
a spatial auditory illusion. We study the problem of maximizing this sweet spot
when reproducing a desired sound wave using an array of loudspeakers. To
achieve this, we introduce a theoretical framework for spatial sound perception
that can be used to define a sweet spot, and we develop a method that aims to
generate a sound wave that directly maximizes the sweet spot defined by a model
within this framework. Our method aims to incorporate perceptual principles
from the onset and is flexible: while it imposes little to no constraints on
the regions of interest, the arrangement of loudspeakers or their radiation
pattern, it allows for audio perception models that include state-of-the-art
monaural perceptual models. Proof-of-concept experiments show that our method
outperforms state-of-the-art methods when comparing them in terms of their
localization and coloration properties.
