Shaping the In-Car Listening Experience: Perceptual Insights and Dynamic Evaluation Methods for Modern Automotive Audio

Schäfer M, Soendergaard J, Sethi A, Bachmann A, Nelke C. Shaping the In-Car Listening Experience: Perceptual Insights and Dynamic Evaluation Methods for Modern Automotive Audio. In: 2026 AES 6th International Automotive Audio Conference. Audio Engineering Society; 2026. Paper 21. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23414

@inproceedings{Schafer2026_23414,
  author = {Schäfer, Magnus and Soendergaard, Jacob and Sethi, Anuj and Bachmann, Adèle and Nelke, Christoph},
  title = {{Shaping the In-Car Listening Experience: Perceptual Insights and Dynamic Evaluation Methods for Modern Automotive Audio}},
  booktitle = {2026 AES 6th International Automotive Audio Conference},
  note = {Paper 21},
  year = {2026},
  month = jul,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23414}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Shaping the In-Car Listening Experience: Perceptual Insights and Dynamic Evaluation Methods for Modern Automotive Audio
AU  - Schäfer, Magnus
AU  - Soendergaard, Jacob
AU  - Sethi, Anuj
AU  - Bachmann, Adèle
AU  - Nelke, Christoph
T2  - 2026 AES 6th International Automotive Audio Conference
M1  - Paper 21
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/29
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=23414
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - The shift toward electric propulsion and higher levels of driving automation is changing what occupants expect from the acoustic environment inside vehicles. Lower propulsion noise and reduced driver workload increase the relevance of communication, entertainment, and spatial rendering, while also exposing limitations of conventional single-point tuning. This paper brings together a controlled listening study with an extended, configuration-aware measurement framework in order to describe the in-car listening experience more coherently than either approach alone. The perceptual part of the work separates playback quality from listening pleasure by means of an Absolute Category Rating experiment. The results show that listeners can distinguish the intrinsic performance of the audio system from the surrounding driving noise, but that overall enjoyment depends strongly on the acoustic environment. Electric vehicles provide a clear advantage at low and medium speeds, whereas high-speed operation remains challenging independent of powertrain. To complement these findings, the paper develops a dynamic measurement framework that incorporates moving-head binaural capture, source panning, multiple seating positions, and controlled changes in cabin state and user settings. In addition to spatially averaged frequency-response measurements, the framework considers Interaural Level Difference (ILD), Interaural Time Difference (ITD), Interaural Cross Correlation (IACC), and the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Score (MDAQS). Particular emphasis is placed on how the interior layout and user-adjustable system states - such as balance/fader settings or the state of the driver-side window - reshape spectral balance and spatial cues. The combined results argue for a motion-aware, multi-seat, and configuration-aware evaluation workflow for modern automotive audio tuning.
ER  -