Guidelines for Jury Evaluations of Automotive Sounds

Abstract

This article provides a set of guidelines intended to be used as a reference for the practicing automotive sound quality (SQ) engineer with the potential for application to the field of general consumer product sound quality. Practicing automotive sound quality engineers are those individuals responsible for understanding and/or conducting the physical and perceptual measurement of automotive sound. This material draws upon the experience of the four authors and thus contains a number of rules-of-thumb which the authors have found worked well in their many automotive related sound quality projects over past years. When necessary, more detailed publications are referenced. The intent here is to provide a reference to assist in automotive sound quality work efforts and to solicit feedback from the general sound quality community as to the completeness of the material presented. Why is there subjective testing and analysis in automotive sound quality investigations? One might ask why bother with the trouble of conducting subjective testing in the first place? In the authors’ experience, conducting subjective jury evaluations of automotive sounds has led to a deeper understanding of those sounds and the way potential customers react to and sometimes appreciate automotive sounds. The following is an attempt to describe subjective testing and analysis as applied to sound quality and its relevance to gaining this deeper understanding. The remainder of this article draws upon the experience of the four authors and as a result, may be biased toward the techniques they have commonly used or have found to work well in their automotive sound quality studies. However, an attempt has been made to address other techniques commonly used by other researchers in the general field of product sound quality. Although not a comprehensive document, it is hoped that this article will provide a set of guidelines which addresses a majority of the issues and techniques used in the field of automotive and general product sound quality. It is hoped that this guide will act as a springboard: a launching point for your own individual investigation into subjective testing and analysis for automotive sound quality.