Rating the Dieselness of engine-sounds

Abstract

Sounds of idling Diesel engines were rated according to their Dieselness with two different psychoacoustic methods. On the one hand, a yes/no procedure was used. Subjects were presented sounds of two seconds duration and had to answer by yes or no to the following question: Does this sound stem from a Diesel engine? Histograms were calculated and a hypothesis was put forward as follows: The more positive answers are given to a specific sound, the larger is the Dieselness of this sound. On the other hand, the method of paired comparison was used, applying a kind of Bradley-Terry-Luce (BTL) procedure. Results are discussed with respect to the psychophysical method used and possible differences in ratings by expert versus naive listeners. Finally, psychoacoustic data are compared to predictions of Dieselness calculated by four different algorithms.