Bradley M. Starobin
RH Lyon Corp, 691 Concord Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138
The special requirements imposed by home theater on the performance characteristics of the surround channel loudspeaker system are several. Primarily, they entail combinations of radiation pattern, and placement/orientation (with respect to room boundaries and the seating area) which give rise to both the facilitation of a pronounced impression of acoustic spaciousness and, somewhat incongruously, the provision of the subtle directional cues for appropriate localization. A single-enclosure, six-element array has been designed to meet these requirements. The geometry, phasing, and passbands of the array elements together account for the system's complex, multipolar radiation pattern, which is characterized by an angular region of reduced output. This radiation null is directed into the seating area, thereby preventing easy localization to the enclosure. The system's acoustic spaciousness, as evidenced by measurements of interaural cross correlation, is compared to that of more traditional surround loudspeaker arrangements. [Work supported by Thomson Consumer Electronics.]