Spectral and Spatial Discrepancies Between Stereo and Binaural Spatial Masters in Headphone Playback: A Perceptual and Technical Analysis

King R, Thériault M. Spectral and Spatial Discrepancies Between Stereo and Binaural Spatial Masters in Headphone Playback: A Perceptual and Technical Analysis. In: Express Paper. Audio Engineering Society; 2025. Paper 382. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23056

@inproceedings{King2025_23056,
  author = {King, Richard and Thériault, Marc},
  title = {{Spectral and Spatial Discrepancies Between Stereo and Binaural Spatial Masters in Headphone Playback: A Perceptual and Technical Analysis}},
  note = {Paper 382},
  year = {2025},
  month = oct,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23056}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Spectral and Spatial Discrepancies Between Stereo and Binaural Spatial Masters in Headphone Playback: A Perceptual and Technical Analysis
AU  - King, Richard
AU  - Thériault, Marc
M1  - Paper 382
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/10/14
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23056
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - This paper investigates the key perceptual and measurable differences between traditional stereo masters and binaural spatial audio masters during headphone playback. With headphone consumption now dominant in music listening, the translation of immersive audio formats into binaural rendering introduces measurable shifts in frequency response, stereophonic imaging behaviour, and loudness characteristics. Through comparative testing of stereo versus binaural down-mixes across calibrated headphone systems, the tonal tilt induced by HRTF-based rendering is quantified, along with the deviation in phantom center and stereo width behaviour, and variations in integrated loudness and peak-to-loudness ratios. This study provides a foundation for refining headphone-focused quality control workflows in immersive music production.
ER  -