In general techniques are described for obtaining decomposed versions of spherical harmonic coefficients. A device comprising a processor and a memory may be configured to perform the techniques. The processor may obtain a non-zero set of coefficients of a vector representative a distinct component of a sound field. The vector may have been decomposed from a plurality of spherical harmonic coefficients that describe the sound field. The processor may also obtain one of a plurality of configuration modes by which to extract the non-zero set of coefficients of the vector where the one of the configuration modes indicates that the coefficients include all of the coefficients except for at least one of the coefficients. The processor may further extract the coefficients of the vector based on the obtained one of the configuration modes. The memory may be configured to store the non-zero set of the coefficients of the vector.