There's this excellent (German?) for website that lets you play around and understand these via demos. I’ll see if I can find it.
Edit: found it, it’s https://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_stereophonicsound.php
For headphone based spatialization (binaral synthesis) usually virtual Ambisonics fed into HRTF convolution is used, which is not amplitude based, specially height is encoded using spectral filtering.
So loudspeakrs -> mostly amplitude based, headphones not amplitude based.
In the case of gamers, they are usually centered relative to the loudspeakers, and usually the loudspeakers tend to be placed symmetrical to the computer screen, so the problem is not so bad.
For cinema viewers sitting in the cinema the problem is much worse, most of the audience is off center... That is why 7.1 has a center loudspeakers, the dialogue is sent directly there to make sure that at least the dialogue comes the right direction.
HRTF as used in binaural synthesis is for headphones only, not relevant here.
Concerning absolute localization, in frontal position, peak accuracy is observed at 1÷2 degrees for localization in the horizontal plane and 3÷4 degrees for localization in the vertical plane (Makous and Middlebrooks, 1990; Grothe et al., 2010; Tabry et al., 2013).
from https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10....
Humans are quite good at estimating distance too, inside rooms.
Humans use 3 cues for localization, time differences, amplitude differences and spectral cues from outer ears, head, torso, etc. They also use slight head movements to disambiguate sources where the signal differences would be the same (front and back, for instance).
I do agree that humans would not perceive the location difference between two pixels next to each other.
> Yet I'm usually not even noticing whether a video has stereo or mono sound. So I highly doubt that ultra precise OLED loudspeakers would make a noticeable difference.
Amplitude, spectral, and timing are all integrated into a positional / distance probability mapping. Humans can estimate the vector of a sound by about 2 degrees horizontal and 4 degrees vertical. Distance is also pretty accurate, especially in a room where direct and reflected sounds will arrive at different times, creating interference patterns.
The brain processes audio in a way not too dissimilar from the way that medical imaging scanners can use a small number of sensors to develop a detailed 3d image.
In a perfectly dark room, you can feel large objects by the void they make in the acoustic space of ambient noise and reflected sounds from your own body.
Interestingly, the shape of the ear is such that different phase shifts occur for front and rear positions of reflected and conducted sounds, further improving localization.
We often underestimate the information richness of the sonic sensome, as most live in a culture that deeply favors the visual environment, but some subcultures and also indigenous cultures have learned to more fully explore those sensory spaces.
People of the extreme northern latitudes may spend a much larger percentage of their waking hours in darkness or overwhelming white environments and learn to rely more on sound to sense their surroundings.
Yet I'm usually not even noticing whether a video has stereo or mono sound. So I highly doubt that ultra precise OLED loudspeakers would make a noticeable difference.