A system for recording and reproducing a three dimensional auditory scene for individual listeners includes one or more microphone arrays (2 and 16); a support (3) for holding, moving the microphone array and also for attaching other devices (14); a data storage and encoding device (9); a control interface (13), and a processor and decoding device (10). The microphones in the microphone array (2) preferably have strong directional characteristics. The microphone array support mount (4) can support one or more physical structures (5) to provide directional acoustic filtering. The directional microphone array is electrically connected via a lead (8) to the sound encoding processor (9) and sound decoding processor (10). As the directional microphone array has acoustically directional properties, these properties can be adjusted using signal processing methods to match the acoustics of the external ears of the individual listener and thus result in a perceptually accurate recording and reproduction of a three dimensional auditory scene for the individual listener.