SHI Bei1  XIE Bosun1,2

(1 Acoustic Lab., Physics Dept., School of Science, South China University of Technology  Guangzhou  510641)

(2 State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Building Science, South China University of Technology  Guangzhou  510641)

Received Feb. 10, 2009

Revised Mar. 23, 2009

Abstract The relationship between the cross-correlation coefficients of feeding signals and auditory spatial impression (ASI) which are created by the left, right, left surround and right surround loudspeakers in 5.1 channel surround sound system is investigated by psychoacoustic experiments. The results show that for reproducing by the front left-right or left-right surround loudspeakers pair, the auditory source width (ASW) can be broadened by controlling the cross-correlation coefficients of feeding signals to some extent. The quantitative relationships between ASW and the cross-correlation coefficients is frequency dependant. For reproducing by a pair of lateral loudspeakers, however, ASW can not be changed by controlling the cross-correlation coefficients of feeding signals. For reproducing by the front and surround loudspeakers pairs simultaneously and for pink noises and octave noises with central frequencies no more than 1kHz, a strong sense of listener envelopment (LEV) can be obtained by controlling the cross-correlation coefficients of feeding signals properly. For the octave band noises with central frequencies at 2 kHz and 4 kHz, however, LEV can not be obtained by controlling the cross coefficients of feeding signals. Further theoretical calculations and measurements show that there is no unique relationship between the inter-aural cross-correlation (IACC) and the ASW in 5.1 channels surround sound reproduction, which may be due to the algorithms of IACC calculation. Further experimental verifications are needed to investigate the applicability of IACC for evaluating ASI. The present results will be helpful to the actual surround sound programming recoding and evaluation.　　

PACS numbers: 43.66, 43.60