Subjective Evaluation of the Localization Performance of the Spherical Wavelet Format Compared to Ambisonics

A common goal of most spatial audio techniques is to reproduce the precise location and size of sound sources. Ambisonics is a well-established spatial audio technique that renders sound sources with increasing accuracy as the Ambisonics’ order increases. Recently, a novel spatial audio format that replaces spherical harmonics with a set of functions based on wavelets has been proposed. The Spherical Wavelet Format (SWF) aims to improve Ambisonics localization, especially at low orders. This study investigates the perceptual spatial properties of both techniques by means of a set of MUSHRA tests.