Perceptual evaluation of professional point and line sources for immersive audio applications

Merkel L, Zotter F, Coleman P. Perceptual evaluation of professional point and line sources for immersive audio applications. In: Express Paper. Audio Engineering Society; 2025. Paper 350. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22901

@inproceedings{Merkel2025_22901,
  author = {Merkel, Leon and Zotter, Franz and Coleman, Philip},
  title = {{Perceptual evaluation of professional point and line sources for immersive audio applications}},
  note = {Paper 350},
  year = {2025},
  month = may,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22901}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Perceptual evaluation of professional point and line sources for immersive audio applications
AU  - Merkel, Leon
AU  - Zotter, Franz
AU  - Coleman, Philip
M1  - Paper 350
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/05/12
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22901
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - Immersive sound reinforcement aims to create a balanced perception of sounds arriving from different directions, establishing an impression of envelopment over the audience area. Current perceptual research shows that coverage designs featuring nearly constant decay (0dB per distance doubling) preserve the level balance among audio objects in the mix. In contrast, a -3dB decay supports a more uniform sensation of envelopment, especially for off-center listening positions. For practical reasons, point-source loudspeakers remain widely used for immersive audio playback in mid-sized venues. However, their-6dBlevel decay per distance doubling can conflict with the design goals outlined above. This paper investigates how much perceived difference there is between point-source and line-source setups, using eight surrounding loudspeakers side-by-side covering a 10m x 7m audience area. The perceptual qualities object level balance, spatial definition, and envelopment were compared in a MuSHRA listening experiment, and to explain the results, acoustic measurements were carried out to capture room impulse responses (RIRs) and binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs). To verify that the perceptual results can be reproduced on headphones, BRIRs were used in a follow-up experiment. Both the loudspeaker and headphone-based experiments confirm the expectation from earlier experiments, but now with dedicated, professional state-of-the-art loudspeakers.
ER  -