A five-target headphone preference test needed 350 listening trials

Evidence

Rtings (www.rtings.com) is based in Montreal, Canada, and publishes objective-based measurements and test reports on headphones, sound bars and other consumer products. Their headphone target is Harman-like but modified for a Head Acoustics HMS II. (Vafaei, 2018). Recently the fixture was replaced with a B&K 5128-B, and a study was conducted to define a new target curve specifically for the fixture. They conducted 350 controlled listening tests where five different target curves were rated based on preference. The listening panel included 35 employees—12 of whom were audio professionals (Lelièvre, 2024). A virtual headphone method was used where the replicator headphone (Sennheiser model 650) was equalized to each of the targets. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1842

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Subjective listening tests require repetition and randomization to be statistically valid — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 144
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Subjective listening tests require repetition and randomization to be statistically valid — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 144