Prediction and measurement of acoustic crosstalk cancellation robustness

The condition number of the matrix of electro-acoustic head-related transfer functions (HRTF) in a two-channel sound reproduction system has been used as a measure of robustness of the Atal-Schroeder (1962) crosstalk canceler. A comparative study has been made using results produced by computer simulations and HRTFs measured in an anechoic chamber by means of a dummy head. It has been found that acoustic scattering by the head has a very important and beneficial influence on robustness, specially for large loudspeaker separations. For narrow loudspeaker separations of less than about 40 degrees it is found that crosstalk cancellation exhibits a large variation of alternating very low and very high robustness. Also, simulations and measurements have been made of the natural channel separation under the same conditions. Scattering by the head is seen to provide a good level of natural channel separation at high frequencies and large loudspeaker angles. At low frequencies or small loudspeaker angles natural channel separation is poor