Most sound reinforcement systems employ a combination of full-range speakers and subwoofers to deliver a consistent sound pressure level over the audience, while maximizing the frequency bandwidth. A time alignment between the main (full-range) and sub (subwoofers) systems is generally required to ensure an efficient summation at low frequencies. This study investigates how time misalignments between the main and sub systems affect the perceived sound quality. We conducted a listening test whereby the listeners were asked to rate the sound quality as a function of the relative delay between main and sub systems. In addition, test participants were requested to qualify the nature of the perceived artifacts using spectral or temporal attributes. Our results suggest that the overall perceived quality does not decrease linearly with increasing delays, and that it reflects the presence of both spectral and temporal degradations. Lastly, temporal degradations are perceived more often when the sub system is delayed with respect to the main system, unlike spectral degradations for which the direction of the delay has very little influence.
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