Design and Subjective Evaluation of a Perceptually-Optimized Headphone Virtualizer

Davidson G, Darcy D, Fielder L, Schuang Z, Graff R, Breebaart J, Crum P. Design and Subjective Evaluation of a Perceptually-Optimized Headphone Virtualizer. In: AES Convention 140. Audio Engineering Society; 2016. Paper 9588. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=18286

@inproceedings{Davidson2016_18286,
  author = {Davidson, Grant and Darcy, Dan and Fielder, Louis and Schuang, Zhiwei and Graff, Rich and Breebaart, Jeroen and Crum, Poppy},
  title = {{Design and Subjective Evaluation of a Perceptually-Optimized Headphone Virtualizer}},
  booktitle = {AES Convention 140},
  note = {Paper 9588},
  year = {2016},
  month = may,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=18286}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Design and Subjective Evaluation of a Perceptually-Optimized Headphone Virtualizer
AU  - Davidson, Grant
AU  - Darcy, Dan
AU  - Fielder, Louis
AU  - Schuang, Zhiwei
AU  - Graff, Rich
AU  - Breebaart, Jeroen
AU  - Crum, Poppy
T2  - AES Convention 140
M1  - Paper 9588
PY  - 2016
DA  - 2016/05/06
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=18286
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - We describe a novel method for designing echoic headphone virtualizers based on a stochastic room model and a numerical optimization procedure. The method aims to maximize sound source externalization under a natural-timbre constraint. The stochastic room model generates a number of binaural room impulse response (BRIR) candidates for each virtual channel, each embodying essential perceptual cues. A perceptually-based distortion metric evaluates the timbre of each candidate, and the optimal candidate is selected for use in the virtualizer. We designed a 7.1.4 channel virtualizer and evaluated it relative to a LoRo stereo downmix using a single-interval A:B preference test. For a pool of 10 listeners, the test resulted in an overall virtualizer preference of 75%, with no stereo test item preferred over binaural.
ER  -