Listeners perceptually normalize familiar rooms to judge loudspeakers clearly
Evidence
As discussed in earlier chapters, adaptation to the listening room is a factor in what we are able to hear in perceptions of loudspeaker sound quality. Below the transition/Schroeder frequency, resonances in small rooms have a massive influence on what we hear. They add timbral colorations and are the acoustic “signature” of a small room, not the large spaces we want to hear in recordings. There are also effects at higher frequencies, in the reflection of off-axis sounds related to loudspeaker directivity. Therefore, if comparing loudspeakers, listen to all of them in the same room, taking time to let the listeners adapt to the acoustical setting. Listeners have the ability to adapt to many aspects of room acoustics in multiple-loudspeaker listening comparisons, as long as there are no extreme problems. As shown in Sections 5.4 and 5.5, when comparisons are done in the same room, large differences in rooms make little difference to the relative sound quality ratings. Listeners appear to be able to normalize the effects of different rooms, at least up to a point. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1098
Categorization
- XREF: Directly relevant to building psychoacoustic models of room-effect normalization; contrasts with the Schroeder-frequency resonance physics also at play. — connects to: Loudspeakers and rooms function together as a single audible system; Listeners normalize room acoustics so a voice stays constant across radically different spaces; Familiarity with a room enables partial perceptual normalization during listening (+9 more)
- corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1098
Broader Connections
- Familiarity with a room enables partial perceptual normalization during listening
#corroborates(0.92) - Listeners can perceptually separate loudspeaker timbre from room coloration in comparisons
#expands(0.85) - Humans can perceptually separate a sound source from its room.
#expands(0.80) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1858