Bass accounts for roughly 30 percent of perceived sound quality

Evidence

It is important not to forget that bass accounts for about 30% of overall sound quality ratings, and that is dominated by the listening room. For matters of adjusting spectral balance in programs to taste, do not hesitate to use tone controls: that is what they are for. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 813

How loudspeakers will sound in the customer’s home or recording control room has always involved an element of chance because bass performance is determined by the listening room and arrangements within it. Bass alone accounts for approximately 30% of our overall impression of sound quality, so clearly the job is not complete until something is done to alleviate the worst effects of room resonances. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 251

Bear in mind that this is a correlation achieved with all other factors varying, indicating that bass extension is a very important factor in overall sound quality evaluations. This was confirmed many years later in work by Olive (2004a, 2004b), discussed later, which revealed that bass performance—smoothness and extension—accounted for about 30% of the factor weighting in double-blind loudspeaker evaluations of sound quality. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 179

Olive (2004a, 2004b) found that in the overall ratings of sound quality, bass accounted for about 30% of the total factor weighting. It is important to get it right, and it cannot be right if some of it is missing. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 912

Categorization

• QUESTION: Where does the 30% figure come from — is it a published rating study or Toole’s own listening-test data? Worth chasing down the source.
• XREF: Connects to room acoustics and bass management topics in audio engineering, and to the standing interest in psychoacoustic models of overall quality. — connects to: Small bass-level changes strongly alter perceived spectral balance; Low-frequency room resonances drive roughly 30 percent of perceived sound quality; Bass extension at −10 dB cutoff predicts loudspeaker fidelity ratings best
• corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 813; Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 251; Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 179 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Low-frequency room resonances drive roughly 30 percent of perceived sound quality #corroborates (0.85)
• Small bass-level changes strongly alter perceived spectral balance #expands (0.75)
• Bass extension at −10 dB cutoff predicts loudspeaker fidelity ratings best #qualifies (0.72)