Current standard 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound multichannel formats are only partly capable of giving a true 3D sound experience. Even advanced schemes, such as Ambisonics or Virtual Surround Panning, rely on a more or less restricted listening area. The solutions are reviewed, their drawbacks explained and proposals for future directions are given, with special emphasis to flexibility in transmission and rendering. It turns out that wave field synthesis is most promising because of its flexibility and its volume solution for the listening space. A prototype of a compact sized, cascadable loudspeaker line array, suitable for wave field synthesis in studios and at home, will be described.