A sound-reproducing system in which sound is recorded or transmitted by using two microphones mounted at the ears of a dummy human head. To preserve the binaural effect, the sound must be monitored by a listener wearing a set of earphones identically spaced. In an ideal binaural transmission system, both the amplitude and phase of the sound waves incident on the dummy's ears are duplicated at the listener's ears.
Binaural systems have been made so perfect that the listener is unable to distinguish the monitored sound from the real sound. For example, when a person walks around the dummy head, the listener, upon hearing the footsteps, has the compelling illusion of someone walking around him. No other sound system thus far devised can even approximate such an effect. See also Sound-reproducing systems; Stereophonic sound.
