Parametric sound field reproduction methods, such as the Spatial Decomposition Method (SDM) and Higher-Order Spatial Impulse Response Rendering (HO-SIRR), are widely used for the analysis and auralization of sound fields. This paper studies the performance of various sound field reproduction methods in the context of the auralization of a critical listening room, focusing on fixed head orientations. The influence on the perceived spatial and timbral fidelity of the following factors is considered: the rendering framework, direction of arrival (DOA) estimation method, microphone array structure, and use of a dedicated center reference microphone with SDM. Listening tests compare the synthesized sound fields to a reference binaural rendering condition, all for static head positions. Several acoustic parameters are measured to gain insights into objective differences between methods. All systems were distinguishable from the reference in perceptual tests. A high-quality pressure microphone improves the SDM framework's timbral fidelity, and spatial fidelity in certain scenarios. Additionally, SDM and HO-SIRR show similarities in spatial fidelity. Performance variation between SDM configurations is influenced by the DOA estimation method and microphone array construction. The binaural SDM (BSDM) presentations display temporal artifacts impacting sound quality.

This paper discusses the audibility of group-delay variations. Previous research has found limits of audibility as a function of frequency for different test signals, but extracting the tolerance for group delay to help audio reproduction system designers is hard. This study considers four critical test signals, three synthetic and one recorded, modified with digital allpass filters. The signals are filtered to produce a positive or negative group-delay peak covering the most sensitive frequency range from 500 Hz to 4 kHz, without changing the delay at other frequencies. ABX listening tests using headphones reveal the audibility thresholds for each signal. The perception is highly dependent on the signal, and the unit impulse and pink impulse are the most critical test signals. Negative group-delay variations are more easily audible than positive ones. The smallest mean threshold for the negative group delay was $-$0.56 ms and 0.64 ms for the positive group delay, obtained with a pink impulse. The thresholds are smaller than those obtained in previous studies. A synthetic hi-hat sound decaying 60 dB in 80 ms hides a positive group-delay variation. The variation is more difficult to hear in a recorded castanet sound than in the most critical synthetic signals. This work demonstrates how the group-delay response of headphones and loudspeakers can be perceptually tested, and leads to a better understanding of how audio systems should be equalized to avoid audible group-delay distortion.

IP networks allow constructing versatile device configurations for multimedia streaming. However, the stochastic nature of the packet-switched data transmission may complicate IP-based implementations of some conventional applications such as analog wired transmission of synchronized multi-channel audio. This paper introduces a multimedia streaming system based on the synchronization of multiple playback clients as a dasiaswarmpsila. The proposed dasiaswarm synchronizationpsila mechanism is based on precise clock synchronization with the PTP protocol and adjusting the client-specific sampling rates according to the true playback rates of other clients. A streamlined version of the RTP protocol is employed to minimize playout delay. The proposed system is empirically evaluated in wired Ethernet LAN and in wireless IEEE 802.11g LAN. The experimental results show that in the Ethernet network the proposed streaming system is able to achieve very precise synchronization.