Loudspeaker Listening: Tabula Rasa or Augmented Reality

Recent developments in virtual and augmented reality technology have stimulated renewed interest in the role of sound and music in these domains. In this article loudspeakers, and the spaces used to listen to them, will be discussed with reference both to the dominant media that have influenced their evolution and in light of emerging media—particularly in augmented reality—which value very different audio-spatial relationships.