Comparison of Passive Transparent Headphones for Augmented Reality Audio

Mülleder A, Lladó P, Meyer-Kahlen N. Comparison of Passive Transparent Headphones for Augmented Reality Audio. In: 2025 AES International Conference on Headphone Technology. Audio Engineering Society; 2025. Paper 24. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22950

@inproceedings{Mulleder2025_22950,
  author = {Mülleder, Alexander and Lladó, Pedro and Meyer-Kahlen, Nils},
  title = {{Comparison of Passive Transparent Headphones for Augmented Reality Audio}},
  booktitle = {2025 AES International Conference on Headphone Technology},
  note = {Paper 24},
  year = {2025},
  month = aug,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22950}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Comparison of Passive Transparent Headphones for Augmented Reality Audio
AU  - Mülleder, Alexander
AU  - Lladó, Pedro
AU  - Meyer-Kahlen, Nils
T2  - 2025 AES International Conference on Headphone Technology
M1  - Paper 24
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/08/18
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22950
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - In Augmented Reality (AR) applications, transparent headphones allow users to perceive their surrounding environment while integrating virtual sound sources. This requires two independent qualities of the headphones: high acoustic transparency and suitability for high-quality binaural rendering. In this study, we assess these two properties for eight headphones commonly used in AR research. To this end, head-related transfer functions and headphone transfer functions were measured for ten participants and a head-and-torso simulator using microphones at the blocked ear canal. The measurements were repeated fifteen times after repositioning each pair of headphones to capture not only inter- but also intra-individual variability of both measurements. These acoustic measurements were then used to estimate headphone-induced coloration and localization errors by means of auditory models. Our results show the variability of transparency estimates for the first time and highlight the importance of low headphone transfer function variability for the suitability of headphones for equalized binaural reproduction. All data are made publicly available to support reproducible AR audio research.
ER  -