• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.599-609
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• 2009

An overview of the recently finalized multi-channel audio coding standard MPEG Surround is provided. This audio coding standard downmixes multi-channel signals to mono or stereo signals and, simultaneously, extracts spatial parameters for its encoding process. In its decoding process, it reconstructs multi-channel signals based on the downmix signals and spatial parameters. Since the downmix signals are coded in conventional audio coding format such as AAC and MP3 and the spatial parameters require a small amount of information MPEG Surround guarantees high sound quality multi-channel audio at low bit rates. Besides, it is backward-compatible to conventional audio coding techniques because the downmix signals can be played on portable audio devices ignoring the spatial parameter information. In this paper, Part 1 presents an overview of the basic structure of MPEG Surround and Part 2 describes various modes and tools including the binaural mode which supports the virtual 5.1-channel playback via headphones or earphones. The listening test results by various companies and organizations are also presented.