A personal object or obstacle detector apparatus with enhanced stereo imaging capability includes a sonar system having dual receivers with field lobes positioned based on psychoacoustic considerations such as interaural intensity difference (IID) and interaural time difference (ITD). Receiver field pattern shapes and directions are selected to match the natural IID and ITD associated with human hearing. In one embodiment, dual receivers are used with a common transmitter while another embodiment utilizes two transmitter/receiver pairs with the transmitter and receiver collocated.