Room acoustics contaminate loudspeaker listening tests needing controlled environments

Evidence

It should not be concluded that listeners can always adapt to or normalize rooms to the extent shown here. As will be seen, there is always some adaptation, but in Experiment One it was enabled by the experimental method of comparing different loudspeakers within each room. Experiment Two is more closely related to real-life listening, in that the sounds of the room and the loudspeaker are combined. Listeners living in the room may develop enough familiarity with it to be able to discern some characteristics of loudspeakers being listened to, but having multiple comparison loudspeakers available is a very advantageous situation. The tests had the additional advantage of being in mono. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 547 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Recorded room ambience may distract listeners from evaluating raw loudspeaker quality; Loudspeakers and rooms function together as a single audible system; Room differences dominate loudspeaker differences when listeners cannot adapt — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 547 (+4 more)

Related

• Room differences dominate loudspeaker differences when listeners cannot adapt (similarity 0.92)
• Loudspeakers and rooms function together as a single audible system (similarity 0.92)
• Listeners need some room sound but its required amount is unknown (similarity 0.90)
• Recorded room ambience may distract listeners from evaluating raw loudspeaker quality (similarity 0.89)
• Rooms shift absolute ratings but not loudspeaker rankings in multiple-loudspeaker comparisons (similarity 0.88)
• Mismatched left-right speakers may degrade stereo imaging more than room effects. (similarity 0.88)
• Anechoic chambers misrepresent how loudspeakers sound in normal rooms (similarity 0.88)
• Reviewers often conflate the room and program with the loudspeaker’s own sound (similarity 0.88)
• Room acoustics and presentation method alter how listeners perceive sounds (similarity 0.88)
• Human listeners can identify loudspeaker qualities through rooms, while microphones cannot. (similarity 0.87)
• Room acoustics act as another system modifying the instrument’s output (similarity 0.87)
• On-axis response alone cannot predict how a loudspeaker sounds in a room (similarity 0.87)
• Multichannel spatial information masks loudspeaker coloration in playback (similarity 0.86)
• Listeners perceptually normalize familiar rooms to judge loudspeakers clearly (similarity 0.86)
• Master recordings must be evaluated in reflective rooms to translate to consumer listening (similarity 0.86)

Broader Connections

• Recorded room ambience may distract listeners from evaluating raw loudspeaker quality #corroborates (0.95)
• Room differences dominate loudspeaker differences when listeners cannot adapt #corroborates (0.88) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 547
• Loudspeakers and rooms function together as a single audible system #responds-to (0.85)
• Room acoustics act as another system modifying the instrument’s output #expands (0.85)
• Leaving the first side wall reflective reveals off-axis loudspeaker behavior in tests #qualifies (0.80)