Journal Article
Open Access
The Effect of Interchannel Time Difference on Localization in Vertical Stereophony
Journal of the Audio Engineering Society · Volume 63 · Issue 10 · pp. 767–776 · October 2015
Abstract
When listeners localize in the median plane (vertical), binaural cues are absent because the sound in the two ears is the same; median plane localization depends solely on spectral cues. In order to analyze the localization of band-limited stimuli in vertical stereophony, listening tests were conducted using seven octave bands of pink noise centered at frequencies from 125 to 8000 Hz as well as broadband pink noise. Experimental results showed that localization is generally governed by the so-called “pitch-height” effect, with the high-frequency stimuli generally being localized significantly higher than the low-frequency stimuli for all conditions. The relationship between pitch and height was found to be nonlinear. As frequency increased, subjective judgments appeared to become more erratic because of interchannel time differences.
