Quadraphonic impulse responses for acoustic enhancement of audio tracks: measurement and analysis

The purpose of the present paper is the description of a method for employing energetic properties of sound fields as useful physical parameters to be used in evaluating the performance of sound reproduction systems. Following some previous works, it will be shown that a complete description of these physical properties in any point of space requires the acquisition of the so called quadraphonic impulse response (sound pressure plus the three components of acoustic velocity). This has led to the realization of a measurement system based on the new generation Microflown® intensimetric probe. It will be shown how this approach has the twofold advantage of a rigorous acoustical interpretation and the possibility of use as an intensimetric-based audio technology, since the pressure-velocity coding is formally compatible with the standard Ambisonic/B-format representation of sound fields.