Reduction of sound localization error for surround sound system using enhanced constant power panning law

In this paper, we propose an enhanced constant power panning (CPP) law which reduces the sound localization error in pair-wise panning for multi-channel loudspeaker layouts. In conventional CPP law, the phantom sound direction is usually different from the panning angle, especially when two loudspeakers are spread out widely. To overcome this problem, we propose an enhanced CPP law using directional psychoacoustic criteria (DPC). Analysis results show that the proposed method makes the same phantom sound direction as the panning angle in the audible frequency range. In addition, its performance is verified by means of a subjective sound localization test using a real sound source.