Curve smoothness and flatness track perceived sound quality ratings

Evidence

There is no doubt from these displays that there was an intimate relationship between the smoothness and flatness of these curves and the perceived sound quality (then called “fidelity”) ratings of the loudspeakers. Fidelity was rated on a scale of 10, where 10 represents a reproduction that is perfectly faithful to the ideal, no improvement is possible, and 0 represents the worst reproduction imaginable. A Pleasantness scale was also provided, thinking that there might be aspects of sound that were appealing, but not accurate. The scale was eventually dropped because the two ratings simply tracked one another. The tests involved double-blind randomized comparisons of four loudspeakers at a time, with several repeated presentations of the same loudspeaker in different groupings. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 174

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s soundscape work — perceived character emerges from measurable spatial-averaged response curves, linking objective and subjective domains.

Related

• Flattening sound power via bass-shy or treble-hot designs harms perceived quality (similarity 0.86)
• Smoother, flatter, wider-bandwidth on-axis curves predict higher subjective loudspeaker ratings. (similarity 0.85)
• Room curves cannot define perceived sound quality on their own (similarity 0.82)
• Perceived spectral balance matches on-axis response more than sound power or room curve (similarity 0.81)
• Smooth flat on- and off-axis response correlates with subjective preference. (similarity 0.81)
• Listeners prefer flat amplitude response but are insensitive to phase shift (similarity 0.81)
• Trained listeners perceive flat spectra from loudspeakers whose on-axis response is flat (similarity 0.81)
• Highly regarded hifi loudspeakers had wildly non-flat anechoic responses (similarity 0.81)
• Room curves show loudspeaker results, not targets worth equalizing toward (similarity 0.81)
• Blind listening shows listeners consistently prefer flat, smooth anechoic frequency response (similarity 0.81)
• Listeners largely agree on preference, and preferred speakers measure smoothest (similarity 0.80)
• Highly regarded loudspeakers measured far from flat in anechoic response (similarity 0.80)
• Loudspeaker directivity determines which curve predicts the room (similarity 0.80)
• Perceived loudspeaker sound quality depends only on amplitude responses (similarity 0.80)
• Anechoic on-axis and sound power responses suffice to predict perceived loudspeaker quality (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Traditional distortion specs fail to predict perceived sound quality #corroborates (0.80) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 991