A square microphone array with 256 elements has been constructed along with interfacing electronics to study low‐frequency (1–5 kHz) sound sources in air using the principles of acoustical holography. The array is used in the nearfield of a radiating object and the sound source structure of that object is reconstructed with an on‐line minicomputer. Reconstruction of the source structure of a point source and an unbaffled, free rectangular plate point excited below its coincidence frequency are presented. The latter shows clear evidence of ’’corner’’ and ’’edge’’ modes in which the respective areas of the plate are the dominant radiating sources. A new imaging process which is not limited in resolution by the wavelength of the radiated sound is introduced.