A method for acoustic scene playback, the method comprising: providing recording data comprising microphone signals of one or more microphone setups positioned within an acoustic scene and microphone metadata of the one or more microphone setups, wherein each of the one or more microphone setups comprises one or more microphones and has a recording spot which is a center position of the respective microphone setup (step 200); specifying a virtual listening position, wherein the virtual listening position is a position within the acoustic scene (step 210); assigning each microphone setup of the one or more microphone setups one or more Virtual Loudspeaker Objects, VLOs, wherein each VLO is an abstract sound output object within a virtual free field (step 220), wherein the virtual free field is a virtual sound field that consists of direct sound without reverberant sound; generating an encoded data stream based on the recording data, the virtual listening position and VLO parameters of the VLOs assigned to the one or more microphone setups (step 230); decoding the encoded data stream based on a playback setup, thereby generating a decoded data stream (step 240); and feeding the decoded data stream to a rendering device, thereby driving the rendering device to reproduce sound of the acoustic scene at the virtual listening position (step 250); characterized in that the method further comprises, after the assigning each microphone setup one or more VLOs, for each microphone setup, positioning the one or more VLOs within the virtual sound field at a position corresponding to the recording spot of the respective microphone setup within the acoustic scene (step 225); wherein for each of the one or more microphone setups, the one or more VLOs assigned to the respective microphone setup are provided on a circular line having the recording spot of the respective microphone setup as a center of the circular line within the virtual free field, and a radius Ri of the circular line depends on a directivity order of the microphone setup, a reverberation of the acoustic scene and an average distance di between the recording spot of the respective microphone setup and recording spots of neighboring microphone setups. providing recording data comprising microphone signals of one or more microphone setups positioned within an acoustic scene and microphone metadata of the one or more microphone setups, wherein each of the one or more microphone setups comprises one or more microphones and has a recording spot which is a center position of the respective microphone setup (step 200); specifying a virtual listening position, wherein the virtual listening position is a position within the acoustic scene (step 210); generating an encoded data stream based on the recording data, the virtual listening position and VLO parameters of the VLOs assigned to the one or more microphone setups (step 230); decoding the encoded data stream based on a playback setup, thereby generating a decoded data stream (step 240); and feeding the decoded data stream to a rendering device, thereby driving the rendering device to reproduce sound of the acoustic scene at the virtual listening position (step 250); characterized in that the method further comprises, after the assigning each microphone setup one or more VLOs, for each microphone setup, positioning the one or more VLOs within the virtual sound field at a position corresponding to the recording spot of the respective microphone setup within the acoustic scene (step 225); wherein for each of the one or more microphone setups, the one or more VLOs assigned to the respective microphone setup are provided on a circular line having the recording spot of the respective microphone setup as a center of the circular line within the virtual free field, and a radius Ri of the circular line depends on a directivity order of the microphone setup, a reverberation of the acoustic scene and an average distance di between the recording spot of the respective microphone setup and recording spots of neighboring microphone setups.