Patent ID: 7953236

Claim:
A computer-implemented process for facilitating a user-comparison of a plurality of audio sound sources played using multi-channel audio equipment and a 3D positional audio capability and a user-selection of one of said sources using a user interface input device, said process comprising: using a computer to perform the following process actions: playing a current audio sound source using the audio equipment such that the source seems to a user to be coming from a location in the surrounding space adjacent a first of the user's ears, and wherein the current sound source is the only sound source seeming to the user to be coming from the surrounding space adjacent the first of the user's ears; playing a group of candidate audio sound sources from said plurality of sources using the audio equipment such that it seems to the user that each of the group of candidate sources is coming from a separate location in the surrounding space adjacent the user's other ear, thereby allowing the user to compare each of the candidate sound sources to the current sound source; and upon selection of one of the candidate sound sources by the user via said input device, playing the selected source using the audio equipment in a non-positional, multi-channel playback mode, wherein said non-positional, multi-channel playback mode is not a mode employing 3D positional audio wherein the selected candidate sound source seems to the user to be emanating from a particular location in the surrounding space, but instead is a mode wherein the selected candidate sound source seems to the user to be emanating from two or more locations in the surrounding space.