A series of 28 listening tests were conducted over the course of 11 months involving 199 different listeners and 4 different loudspeakers to determine the repeatability, accuracy and preferences of untrained versus trained listeners. The results indicate remarkable repeatability and similarity in preference among both trained and untrained listeners. This suggests that training does not bias listeners' preference, and their results can be extrapolated to a larger population of untrained listeners. The trained listeners tended to use the lower half of the preference scale compared to untrained listeners, and produce more reliable and discriminating preferences amongst the different loudspeakers. Other factors that produce variance in preference ratings include training, program, the context and number of speakers compared, audiometric performance and biases within the preference scale itself. A comparison of the acoustical measurements of the loudspeakers and their mean preference rating show clear correlations.
Author:
Olive, Sean E.
Affiliation:
Research & Development Group, Harman International Industries, Inc., Northridge, CA
AES Convention:
114 (March 2003)
Paper Number:
5728
Publication Date:
March 1, 2003
Subject:
Psychoacoustics, Perception, and Listening Tests
Click to purchase paper as a non-member or you can login as an AES member to see more options.
No AES members have commented on this paper yet.
To be notified of new comments on this paper you can subscribe to this RSS feed. Forum users should login to see additional options.
If you are not yet an AES member and have something important to say about this paper then we urge you to join the AES today and make your voice heard. You can join online today by clicking here.