Volumetric distributions of receiving antennas are investigated for their ability to mitigate aliasing and enhance the direction of arrival (DOA) estimation. Surface and volumetric distributions in canonical arrangements (cubic and spherical) of elements and configurations inspired by crystallographic lattices (cubic, tetragonal, etc.) are investigated using the Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm. These are compared to planar and linear distributions, and experimental observations from basic transmission measurements are used to evaluate several of the element distributions and compare their performance. © 2012 IEEE.