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Perceived Sound Quality of Small Original and Optimized Loudspeaker Systems

The perceived sound quality of small loudspeaker systems with and without digital optimization was empirically evaluated in a listening experiment. Further, it was investigated how the presentation order in the performed paired comparisons influenced the results, as well as whether a self-evaluation was of potential use for variance reduction. The systems were optimized by means of FIR filters. The two versions of each loudspeaker system were rated in a paired comparison test for music stimuli. For the purpose of analysis a linear Gaussian model was applied, resulting in an interval scale revealing interesting information about certainty and discrimination ability of the listeners. The test investigated whether linear pre-compensation of small and inexpensive loudspeaker systems results in a significant improvement of the perceived audio quality in a typical listening situation. The results indicated a significant preference for the optimized version and a significant dependency on the presentation order was detected. The self-evaluation was found to be uncorrelated to the test results.

Author: Bahne, Adrian
Affiliation: Uppsala University, Department of Engineering Sciences, Signals and Systems, Uppsala, Sweden
JAES Volume 60 Issue 1/2 pp. 29-37; January 2012 Import into BibTeX

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