N2 - Available methods for room-related sound presentation are introduced and evaluated. A focus is put on the synthesis side rather than on complete transmission systems. Different methods are compared using common, though quite general criteria. The methods selected for comparison are: Intensity Stereophony after Blumlein, vector-base amplitude panning (VBAP), 5.1-Surround and its discrete-channel derivatives, synthesis with spherical harmonics (Ambisonics, HOA), synthesis based on the boundary method, namely, wave-field synthesis (WFS), and binaural-cue selection methods (e.g., DiRAC). While VBAP, 5.1-Surround and other discrete-channel-based methods show a number of practical advantages, they do, in the end, not aim at authentic sound-field reproduction. The so-called holophonic methods that do so, particularly, HOA and WFS, have specific advantages and disadvantages which will be discussed. Yet, both methods are under continuous development, and a decision in favor of one of them should be taken from a strictly application-oriented point of view by considering relevant application-specific advantages and disadvantages in detail. L1 - http://journals.pan.pl/Content/101566/PDF/02_paper.pdf L2 - http://journals.pan.pl/Content/101566 PY - 2012 IS - No 1 EP - 18 DO - 10.2478/v10168-012-0002-y KW - surround sound KW - holography KW - wavefield synthesis KW - ambisonics KW - amplitude panning KW - summing localization A1 - Blauert, Jens A1 - Rabenstein, Rudolf PB - Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Committee on Acoustics VL - vol. 37 DA - 2012 T1 - Providing Surround Sound with Loudspeakers: A Synopsis of Current Methods SP - 5 UR - http://journals.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/101566 T2 - Archives of Acoustics