An active audio matrix decoding method and apparatus to generate multi-channel audio signals from a stereo channel audio signal. The method includes: decoding a stereo channel audio signal into a multi-channel signal, extracting a power vector of each channel signal by multiplying a magnitude of each decoded channel signal by positions of a plurality of channel speakers, extracting a vector of a virtual sound source existing between each channel by linearly combining power vector values of each decoded channel, extracting a vector value of a dominant sound image by linear combination of the vectors of the extracted virtual sound sources and normalizing the position of each channel speaker with respect to the vector value of the dominant sound image, and distributing a gain value to each channel position by comparing the magnitude of an entire decoded channel signal with the magnitude of each channel signal.