Further Investigations of High-Order Ambisonics and Wavefield Synthesis for Holophonic Sound Imaging

Ambisonics and Wavefield Synthesis are two ways of rendering 3D audio, which both aim at physically reconstructing the sound field. Though they derive from distinct theoretical fundamentals, they have already been shown as equivalent under given assumptions. This paper further discusses their relationship by introducing new results regarding the coding and rendering of finite distance and enclosed sources. An updated view of the current knowledge is first given. A unified analysis of sound pickup and reproduction by mean of concentric transducer arrays then provides an insight into the spatial encoding and decoding properties. While merging the analysis tools of both techniques and investigating them on a common ground, general compromises are highlighted in terms of spatial aliasing, error and noise amplification.