A system for natural reproduction of sound and vibration

Abstract

For the psychoacoustical evaluation of sound, usually artificial head recordings are reproduced with headphones or loudspeakers. Interior aircraft or car noise, however, contains high sound and vibration energy components below 20 Hz. If these spectral components are not reproduced, subjects often complain about an unnatural hearing impression. In this paper, a reproduction system is presented that extends the audio bandwidth down to 2 Hz. For presenting vibration signals, the subject’s chair (e.g., aircraft or car seat) is mounted on an exciter system. The three-dimensional vibration signal spans the frequency range from 6 to 80 Hz. A report is given on psychoacoustic experiments and results with this sound and vibration reproduction system.