How Important is the Reproduction Technique for the Perception of Spaciousness in Music?

Abstract

Sound fields are preferred when spaciousness is perceived. “Spaciousness means that auditory events, in a characteristic way, are themselves perceived as being spread out in an extended region of space”. The author’s former study (2012) investigated the perception of spaciousness of five musical genres. Participants evaluated spaciousness while listening to music with loudspeakers. Resulting, these genres allowed classifications of spatial features such as “big”, “wide” and “open”. A new idea of conducting listening tests has arisen using wave field synthesis instead of headphones. Firstly, this study aims to reveal the perceptional characteristics of spaciousness in music itself with headphones, loudspeakers and wave field synthesis. Secondly, it will find the differences of perception when participants listen with headphones, loudspeakers and wave field synthesis. Thirdly, this study's goal is to investigate the possibility of replacing headphones with wave field synthesis for listening tests. A hearing test has been conducted asking 28 participants for their spacious impression. The Participants rated 30 music excerpts on a 7 Point-Likert-Scale from “little spacious” to “much spacious”. Dummy head measurements for an objective comparison were made. 3x3 ANOVA repeated measures revealed a significant Within-Subject effect for the technical devices (F = 4.541, p < 0.05), different instrument groups (F = 71.281, p < 0.01) and also for the interaction technical devices-instrument groups (F = 7.700, p < 0.01). The kind and number of music instruments on the one hand and the reproduction technique on the other hand influences the perception of spaciousness.