Comparison of Higher Order Ambisonics And Wave Field Synthesis With Respect to Spatial Discretization Artifacts in Time Domain

We present a time domain analysis and comparison of spatial discretization artifacts in near-field compensated higher order Ambisonics and wave field synthesis. Simulations of both methods on the same circular loudspeaker array are investigated and the results are interpreted in terms of fundamental psycho-acoustical properties of the human auditory system, most notably the precedence effect. It can be shown that both methods exhibit fundamental different properties regarding the synthesized first arriving wave fronts as well as additional correlated wave fronts (echoes). The properties of both types of wave fronts are a consequence of the combination of the spatial bandwidth of the loudspeaker driving function and the fact that a finite number of spatially discrete loudspeakers are employed.