Subjective Listening Experiments on a Front and Rear Array-Based WFS System

• Published in: ETRI journal Vol. 33; no. 6; pp. 977 - 980
• Main Authors: Yoo, Jae-Hyoun, Seo, Jeong-Il, Shim, Hwan, Chung, Hyun-Joo, Sung, Koeng-Mo, Kang, Kyeong-Ok
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Korean
• Published: 한국전자통신연구원 01.12.2011; ETRI
• Subjects: Wave field synthesis; front and rear loudspeaker array
• ISSN: 1225-6463; 2233-7326

Wave field synthesis (WFS) has been gathering more and more attention recently due to its ability to perfectly reproduce an original sound field. However, to realize theoretically perfect WFS, a four-sided loudspeaker array that encloses the listener is required. However, it is difficult to build such a system except in large listening spaces, such as a theater or concert hall. In other words, if the listening space is a home, installing a side loudspeaker array is impractical. If the two side walls located to the left and right of the listener can be omitted, a setup using only front and rear loudspeaker arrays may be a solution. In this letter, we present a subjective listening experiment of sound localization/distance based on a WFS using a front and rear loudspeaker array system which is conducted on two listening points and shows average localization errors of $6.1^{\circ}$ and $9.18^{\circ}$, while the average distance errors are -27% (0.5 m) and -29% (0.6 m), respectively.