Spatial audio content for headphones is often created using binaural rendering of a virtual loudspeaker array. It is important to understand the effect of this choice on the sound quality. A sensory profiling evaluation was used to assess the perceived differences between direct binaural rendering and virtual loudspeaker rendering of a single sound source with and without head tracking and using anechoic and reverberant binaural impulse responses. A subset of the Spatial Audio Quality Inventory (SAQI) was used. Listeners first selected only attributes that they felt applied to the given stimuli. Initial analysis shows that tone colour and source direction are most affected by the use of this technique, but source extent, distance, and externalisation are also affected. Further work is required to analyse the sparse attribute rating data in depth.

Authors: Pike, Chris; Melchior, Frank; Tew, Anthony
Affiliations: BBC Research & Development; University of York, York, UK(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Conference: 2016 AES International Conference on Headphone Technology (August 2016)
Paper Number: 5-3
Publication Date: August 19, 2016 Import into BibTeX
Subject: Perceptual Evaluation / Perceptual Audio Evaluation
Permalink: https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=18348

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