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Conference Paper Open Access

Listener-Preferred Headphone Frequency Response for Stereo and Spatial Audio Content

Authors: Engel, Isaac; Alon, David; Scheumann, Kevin; Mehra, Ravish

AES Conference: 2020 AES International Conference on Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality (August 2020) · Paper 1-5 · August 2020

Abstract

When spatial audio content is presented over headphones, the audio signal is typically filtered with binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs). An accurate virtual auditory space presentation can be achieved by flattening the headphones’ frequency response. However, when presenting stereo music over headphones, previous studies have shown that listeners prefer headphones with a frequency response that simulates loudspeakers in a listening room. It is as yet unclear if headphones that are calibrated in such a way will be preferred by listeners in the context of spatial audio content as well. This study investigates how listeners’ preferences for headphone frequency response may differ between stereo audio content and spatial audio content, which was rendered by convolving the same stereo content with in-situ-measured BRIRs of loudspeakers in a room.

Details

Published in
AES Conference: 2020 AES International Conference on Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality (August 2020)
Paper number
1-5
Publication date
August 6, 2020
Affiliation
Facebook Reality Labs (See document for exact affiliation information.)
Type
Conference Paper