Near-field loudspeaker array: Layout of loudspeakers

Loudspeaker arrays which can confine the acoustic field in the near-field are investigated for realizing personal audio systems. Since the supposed listening point is in the near-field, possible layouts of the loudspeakers are, for example, neck speakers and open-ear speakers. The performance of these two examples are examined by numerical simulation in this study. In the neck speaker, the acoustic confinement was poor especially at a high frequency, because the listening point was not very close to the loudspeaker array. In the open-ear speaker, the acoustic confinement was good, because the listening point was very close to the loudspeaker array.