Ambisonics is a method for reproducing a sound field that has been recorded at a particular location using multiple directional microphones. Most ambisonic systems are first-order using four directional microphones in a tetrahedral arrangement that are ultimately reproduced over at least four loudspeakers or within a head-mounted display using four virtual loudspeakers. A number of systems have been developed that extend the spherical-harmonic order by using more microphones and loudspeakers. Higher-order ambisonics should increase the spatial resolution of the reproduced sound, but the perceptual benefits of this development have not been extensively explored. In a series of experiments, spatial release from masking (SRM) was measured using a circular ambisonic reproduction system for a range of different ambisonic orders and for different loudspeaker selections. One experiment used ambisonic panning, while the second used impulse responses recorded form a 6th-order ambisonic microphone. These experiments found a progressive increase in SRM with increasing ambisonic order for speech presented against a single speech-shaped-noise interferer. SRM increased progressively up to at least 4th order and continued to asymptotically improve at higher ambisonic orders towards the level achieved with point sources. The second experiment also established that this effect was robust for different acoustic environments. Since a beneficial effect of higher ambisonic was confirmed using different methodologies and in both anechoic and reverberant environments, the spherical order of encoding format appears to form a common bottleneck in the necessary spatial information. Further experiments examining the effect of loudspeaker location for first-order ambisonics and the effect of ambisonic order on speech reception for ambisonic recordings in complex listening situations are on ongoing and will be reported at the meeting.