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Perception of Phase Distortion in Anti-Alias Filters

Experimental results on the audibility of phase distortion produced by minimum-phase 4-kHz and 15-kHz anti-alias filters are reported. Numerous impulse response pairs with identical spectral magnitudes but linear-phase and minimum-phase responses were compared by five test subjects who listened diotically (same signal at both ears) on earphones. Group-delay distortion was doubled, progressively, until at least 67% mean correct discrimination was attained. At 4 kHz the phase distortion introduced by a cascade of two eighth-order Butterworth filter pairs was audible, as was that from only a single pair of seventh-order elliptic filters. At 15 kHz the cascade of up to 4 pairs of seventh-order elliptic filters introduced no perceptible effects. Experimental details and several representative filter frequency and transient responses are included.

Authors: Preis, Douglas; Bloom, P. J.
Affiliations: Tufts University, Department of Electrical Engineering, Medford, MA ; Polytechnic of Central London, Division of Engineering, London W1M 8JS, UK(See document for exact affiliation information.)
JAES Volume 32 Issue 11 pp. 842-848; November 1984 Import into BibTeX

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