Traditional distortion specs fail to predict perceived sound quality

Evidence

The result of this is that traditional measures of harmonic or intermodulation distortion are almost meaningless. They do not quantify distortion in a way that can, with any reliability, predict a human response to it while listening to music or movies. They do not correlate because they ignore any characteristics of the human receptor, itself an outrageously non-linear device. The excessive simplicity of the signals also remains a problem. Music and movies offer an infinite variety of input signals and therefore an infinite variety of distorted outputs. The only meaningful target for conventional distortion metrics is “zero.” Above that, somebody, sometime, listening to something, may be aware of distortion, but we cannot define it in advance. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 458 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The development of such models is also a tedious and demanding task, and objective models can never fully replace subjective evaluation. The advantages of objective models lie in efficiency, rapid evaluation, and repeatability of results. The development of such models may also yield a deeper understanding of the phenomena than subjective results. The disadvantage of objective models is that they never take into account all factors in full detail, and thus their domain of validity (meaning that they correlate well with subjective results) is limited. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2337 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Music’s dense spectrum masks its own distortion products. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 451; Bass phase distortion audibility remains unproven without double-blind tests.; Distortion rarely drives subjective ratings of consumer loudspeakers (+12 more)

Related

• Conventional distortion metrics cannot predict human response to music or movies (similarity 0.94)
• Objective sound quality models have limited domains of validity and cannot replace subjective testing (similarity 0.89)
• Distortion rarely drives subjective ratings of consumer loudspeakers (similarity 0.85)
• Perceived loudspeaker sound quality depends only on amplitude responses (similarity 0.84)
• No universal sound-quality model exists; listener data is the only shared starting point (similarity 0.83)
• Psychoacoustic knowledge rests entirely on subjective listening tests, not direct measurement (similarity 0.83)
• Objective measures based on hearing models substitute for tedious listening tests of distortion. (similarity 0.83)
• Measurement research aims to map objective data onto subjective sound quality ratings (similarity 0.83)
• Subjective experience dictates which measurements matter in audio research (similarity 0.82)
• Sound quality means judged preferability, not category membership (similarity 0.82)
• Consumer Reports loudspeaker ratings lacked rigorous subjective validation (similarity 0.82)
• Bass phase distortion audibility remains unproven without double-blind tests. (similarity 0.82)
• Musicians who are not audio enthusiasts judge loudspeakers on different rationales (similarity 0.82)
• Sound quality is judged as deviations from ideal amounts of perceptual dimensions (similarity 0.82)
• Sound quality is fundamentally subjective and requires perceptual testing to characterize (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Distortion rarely drives subjective ratings of consumer loudspeakers #corroborates (1.00)
• Conventional distortion metrics cannot predict human response to music or movies #corroborates (0.95) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 458
• Conventional distortion measurements include inaudible masked components #expands (0.85)
• Objective sound quality models have limited domains of validity and cannot replace subjective testing #corroborates (0.85) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2337
• Physical accuracy of a sound field does not predict perceived accuracy #corroborates (0.80) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1902
• Anechoic on-axis and sound power responses suffice to predict perceived loudspeaker quality #contradicts (0.80) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1292
• A-weighted dB values misrepresent perceived loudness for complex sounds. #exemplifies (0.72) — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1176
• Sound quality is fundamentally subjective and requires perceptual testing to characterize #corroborates (0.72)
• Frequency-domain differences track perceived distortion better than time-domain ones #qualifies (0.70)