The precise location of a loudspeaker in a listening room is known to affect loudspeaker preference ratings. When multiple loudspeakers are compared the evaluation is limited by the poor human auditory memory. To overcome these problems, a method to evaluate and compare loudspeakers using headphones is proposed. The method utilizes personal head-related transfer functions in rendering the sound field recorded in a standard listening room with an artificial head. Equalization of circumaural headphones and the artificial head are investigated. Formal listening tests are conducted to examine differences between the proposed binaural method and real loudspeakers in a standard listening room. Listening tests show that the virtualized loudspeakers can be nearly imperceptible from reality in many but not in all cases.

Authors: Hiekkanen, Timo; Karjalainen, Matti; Mäkivirta, Aki
Affiliations: Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics, Helsinki University of Technology;Genelec Oy(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Convention: 124 (May 2008) Paper Number: 7367
Publication Date: May 1, 2008 Import into BibTeX
Subject: Spatial Audio Perception and Processing
Permalink: https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=14497

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