Monitor

Monitor turns the sphere into headphones. It's how you work on ambisonic material without a speaker rig, and for most people most of the time it is how the work actually gets done.

It simulates what your two eardrums would hear if you stood inside the field. That needs a measurement of how a head filters sound arriving from each direction, and whose head it is matters — a stranger's ears are a rough fit for yours, which is why height is the first thing to sound wrong.

Two things narrow that gap. The SADIE II set covers a range of heads rather than one, and head size adjusts the fit to yours. And if you have a personalised measurement of your own ears, it drops straight in — a SOFA file is all it needs.

Treat it as a good, honest translation rather than as the truth. It is close enough to make decisions on, and worth checking on speakers when the decision is expensive.