Correlations between sound field characteristics and subjective ratings on reproduced music sound quality

Abstract

The partial-space power, a sound field property for a loudspeaker, was newly defined in order to obtain general characteristics including on-axis sound pressure and total-space power. For typical loudspeakers, it was confirmed that the partial-space-power frequency response reflects the principal features, dips, peaks, and gradients of space-averaged sound-pressure frequency response in ordinary rooms. An all-inclusive listening test was performed with six subjective rating scales for ten loudspeakers. Then, the correlation between the sound field characteristics and the subjective rating data were examined. The sound dispersion as well as the frequency response seems to correlate with most normally employed subjective rating scales used in listening tests.