Subjective relevance of objective measures for spatial impression (A)

Abstract

Several objective measures have been proposed to describe the feeling of spatial impression in concert halls, including Lateral Energy Fraction (LF) and Interaural Cross-Correlation Coefficient (IACC). However, previous studies have shown that LF and IACC values did not highly correlate with each other at individual seat positions in real halls [J. S. Bradley, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 96, 3525–3535 (1994)]. To investigate the listener envelopment aspect of spatial impression further, subjective paired-comparison tests have been run using signals which have various values for LF, early IACC (from 5–80 ms), late IACC (from 80 ms–1 s), and late lateral relative sound level (GLL). Another proposed measure, called Interaural Level Fluctuations (IALF), has also been included, which is based on the rate of change over time of the level difference between the ears. The binaural test signals were generated by the room acoustics simulation program ODEON, using four different musical motifs, and were presented to test subjects via headphones. Results from the experiments are presented. [Work supported by ASA Hunt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.