The auditory system cancels room coloration to recover source signals

Evidence

Listeners are also able to adapt to spectral colouring caused by the room using binaural listening, which is called binaural decolouration. The goal of the mechanisms is interpreted to be the estimation of sound signals emanated by sound sources in an enclosed space. They show a remarkable ability to estimate the sound signal emanated by the source by ignoring the spectral contribution of the room response present in the ear canal signals (Brüggen, 2001). … Bilsen (1977) states that some pitch phenomena can be explained by assuming that listeners somehow up the spectra of the left and right ears to form a central spectrum. Such a summation would make the dips in the room responses less audible, since the dips typically occur at different positions in frequency, which could explain, at least partly, the decolouration effects. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1520

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader arc in this book on how binaural hearing separates source from environment; also relates to how room correction and equalization systems (Toole 2006) replicate what the ear does naturally. — connects to: Listeners perceptually subtract room coloration from source signals, called binaural decolouration. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1520
• DEFINE: Defines the term ‘binaural decolouration’ — the mechanism by which listeners ignore room spectral contributions in ear canal signals.