In horizontal stereophony, it is known that interchannel correlation relates to the horizontal spread of a phantom auditory image. However, little is known about the perceptual effect of interchannel correlation on vertical image spread (VIS) between two vertically-arranged loudspeakers. The present study investigates this through two subjective experiments: 1) a multiple comparison of relative VIS for stimuli with varying degrees of correlation; and 2) the absolute measurement of upper and lower VIS boundaries for extreme stimuli conditions. Octave-band (center frequencies: 63 Hz to 16 kHz) and broadband pink noise signals have been decorrelated using two techniques: all-pass filtering and complementary comb-filtering. These stimuli were presented from vertically-spaced loudspeaker pairs at three azimuth angles (0°, ±30°, and ±110°), with each angle assessed discretely. Both the relative and absolute test results show no significant effect of vertical correlation on VIS for the 63 Hz, 125 Hz, and 250 Hz bands. For the 500 Hz band and above, there is a general tendency for VIS to increase as correlation decreases, which is observed for both decorrelation methods.

Authors: Gribben, Christopher; Lee, Hyunkook
Affiliation: Applied Psychoacoustics Laboratory (APL), University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK
JAES Volume 66 Issue 7/8 pp. 537-555; July 2018
Publication Date: August 20, 2018 Import into BibTeX
Permalink: http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=19705

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2018.0040

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