Personal stereophonic system using loudspeakers: Feasibility study

Sound focused personal audio system is defined as the system that can make a user enjoy the sound without bothering userpsilas neighbors. To implement this system, it is needed to generate the acoustically bright zones where a user is supposed to be and the dark zones in userpsilas side regions. As a solution method, acoustic contrast control [Kim and Choi, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 111. 1695 (2002)], which maximize the energy ratio between two zones, can be considered and, sound focused personal audio system for a mono sound have been implemented in 2007 as an application example and its results were reliable: 20 dB pressure level difference between the bright and dark zone. We have tried to make the sound focused personal audio system for a stereo sound as a further application: personal stereophonic system. Acoustic contrast control was also applied to implement this system and the control scheme for stereophonic sound using this method was suggested. In this paper, we address the mathematical formulations of stereophonic system using acoustic contrast control, and discussions for its capabilities for implementing the personal stereophonic system from theoretical and experimental results.