A system for imposing static (fixed‐head) localization cues on an artificial sound source is described. The system is based on the measurement of the peripheral binaural impulse responses at a series of target source positions using small microphones in the subject's ear canals. A computer with associated waveform processing software convolves these impulse responses with widehand noise bursts and plays the results to the subject over headphones. The headphone impulse responses are also measured and deconvolved out of the waveforms in advance by the computer. Both live and simulated localization trials have been carried out, using an identification paradigm with unconstrained source and subject‐response positions. Two‐dimensional, weighted error analysis is used to derive performance scores. Psychophysical localization performance with the simulator is compared to equivalent live performance.