A method for rendering a Higher-Order Ambisonics sound field representation for audio playback, comprising steps of - buffering received HOA time samples b(t), wherein blocks B(μ) of M samples and a time index μ are formed; - filtering the coefficients B(μ) to obtain frequency filtered coefficients B̂ ( μ); - rendering the frequency filtered coefficients B̂ ( μ) to a spatial domain using a decode matrix D, wherein a spatial signal W(μ) is obtained; - buffering and serializing the spatial signal W(μ), wherein time samples w(t) for L channels are obtained; - delaying the time samples w(t) individually for each of the L channels in delay lines, wherein L digital signals are obtained; and - Digital-to-Analog converting and amplifying the L digital signals, wherein L analog loudspeaker signals are obtained, wherein the decode matrix D of the rendering step is suitable for rendering to a given arrangement of target speakers and is obtained by steps of - obtaining a number L of target speakers and positions of the speakers; - determining positions of a spherical modeling grid related to the HOA order N according to the received HOA time samples b(t); - generating a mix matrix G from the positions of the spherical modeling grid and the positions of the speakers - generating a mode matrix Ψ̃ from the spherical modeling grid and the HOA order N; - performing a compact singular value decomposition of the product of the mode matrix Ψ̃ with the Hermitian transposed mix matrix G according to VS U H = G Ψ ̃ H, where U,V are derived from Unitary matrices and S is a diagonal matrix with singular value elements, and calculating a first decode matrix D̂ from the matrices U,V according to D̂ = V Ŝ U H, wherein Ŝ is a truncated compact singular value decomposition matrix that is either an identity matrix or a modified diagonal matrix, the modified diagonal matrix being derived from said diagonal matrix with singular value elements by replacing singular value elements larger or equal than a threshold by ones, and replacing singular value elements that are smaller than the threshold by zeros; and - smoothing and scaling (44, 45) the first decode matrix D̂ with smoothing coefficients, wherein the decode matrix D is obtained, wherein said smoothing uses a first smoothing method if L≥ O 3D, and a different second smoothing method if L < O 3D, with O 3D = (N+1) 2, and wherein a smoothed decode matrix D̃ is obtained that is then scaled. - buffering received HOA time samples b(t), wherein blocks B(μ) of M samples and a time index μ are formed; - filtering the coefficients B(μ) to obtain frequency filtered coefficients B̂ ( μ); - rendering the frequency filtered coefficients B̂ ( μ) to a spatial domain using a decode matrix D, wherein a spatial signal W(μ) is obtained; - buffering and serializing the spatial signal W(μ), wherein time samples w(t) for L channels are obtained; - delaying the time samples w(t) individually for each of the L channels in delay lines, wherein L digital signals are obtained; and - Digital-to-Analog converting and amplifying the L digital signals, wherein L analog loudspeaker signals are obtained, wherein the decode matrix D of the rendering step is suitable for rendering to a given arrangement of target speakers and is obtained by steps of - obtaining a number L of target speakers and positions of the speakers; - determining positions of a spherical modeling grid related to the HOA order N according to the received HOA time samples b(t); - generating a mix matrix G from the positions of the spherical modeling grid and the positions of the speakers - generating a mode matrix Ψ̃ from the spherical modeling grid and the HOA order N; - performing a compact singular value decomposition of the product of the mode matrix Ψ̃ with the Hermitian transposed mix matrix G according to VS U H = G Ψ ̃ H, where U,V are derived from Unitary matrices and S is a diagonal matrix with singular value elements, and calculating a first decode matrix D̂ from the matrices U,V according to D̂ = V Ŝ U H, wherein Ŝ is a truncated compact singular value decomposition matrix that is either an identity matrix or a modified diagonal matrix, the modified diagonal matrix being derived from said diagonal matrix with singular value elements by replacing singular value elements larger or equal than a threshold by ones, and replacing singular value elements that are smaller than the threshold by zeros; and - smoothing and scaling (44, 45) the first decode matrix D̂ with smoothing coefficients, wherein the decode matrix D is obtained, wherein said smoothing uses a first smoothing method if L≥ O 3D, and a different second smoothing method if L < O 3D, with O 3D = (N+1) 2, and wherein a smoothed decode matrix D̃ is obtained that is then scaled.