Evaluation of Spatial Audio Reproduction Methods (Part 1): Elicitation of Perceptual Differences

There are a wide variety of spatial audio reproduction systems available, from a single loudspeaker to many spatially distributed loudspeakers. An important factor in the selection, development, or optimization of such systems is listener preference, and the important perceptual characteristics that contribute to this. An experiment was performed to determine the attributes that contribute to listener preference for a range of spatial audio reproduction methods. Experienced and inexperienced listeners made preference ratings for combinations of seven program items replayed over eight reproduction systems, and reported the reasons for their judgments. Automatic text clustering reduced redundancy in the responses by approximately 90%, facilitating subsequent group discussions that produced clear attribute labels, descriptions, and scale end-points. Twenty-seven and twenty-four attributes contributed to preference for the experienced and inexperienced listeners respectively. The two sets of attributes contain a degree of overlap (ten attributes from the two sets were closely related); however, the experienced listeners used more technical terms whilst the inexperienced listeners used more broad descriptive categories.