Method and device for decoding a higher-order Ambisonics (HOA) representation of an audio soundfield

The invention discloses rendering sound field signals, such as Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA), for arbitrary loudspeaker setups, where the rendering results in highly improved localization properties and is energy preserving. This is obtained by rendering an audio sound field representation for arbitrary spatial loudspeaker setups and/or by a a decoder that decodes based on a decode matrix (D). The decode matrix (D) is based on smoothing and scaling of a first decode matrix {circumflex over (D)} with smoothing coefficients. The first decode matrix {circumflex over (D)} is based on a mix matrix G and a mode matrix {tilde over (ψ)}, where the mix matrix G was determined based on L speakers and positions of a spherical modelling grid related to a HOA order N, and the mode matrix {tilde over (ψ)} was determined based on the spherical modelling grid and the HOA order N.