  A sound field synthesis method enhancing perceptual quality is proposed.
Sound field synthesis using multiple loudspeakers enables spatial audio
reproduction with a broad listening area; however, synthesis errors at high
frequencies called spatial aliasing artifacts are unavoidable. To minimize
these artifacts, we propose a method based on the combination of pressure and
amplitude matching. On the basis of the human's auditory properties,
synthesizing the amplitude distribution will be sufficient for horizontal sound
localization. Furthermore, a flat amplitude response should be synthesized as
much as possible to avoid coloration. Therefore, we apply amplitude matching,
which is a method to synthesize the desired amplitude distribution with
arbitrary phase distribution, for high frequencies and conventional pressure
matching for low frequencies. Experimental results of numerical simulations and
listening tests using a practical system indicated that the perceptual quality
of the sound field synthesized by the proposed method was improved from that
synthesized by pressure matching.
