Design aspects for an improved B-Format microphone

The B-Format microphone has been used since more than 20 years for recordings of natural 3-dimensional sound fields. It outputs one pressure signal and three directional signals. Acoustical measurements carried out in this contribution show some systematic quality limitations of directional signals. A simulation environment is verified against these real-world measurements. It is used then to vary the design parameters of the B-Format microphone. Technical possibilities for quality improvements of the directional signals are identified and discussed.