This web companion page contains sound examples
related to the paper J. Rämö, V. Välimäki, and M. Tikander "Perceptual Headphone Equalization for Mitigation of Ambient Noise" presented in the
IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Vancouver, Canada, May 2013.
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Abstract |
An adaptive perceptual equalizer for headphones is introduced. It estimates the effect of auditory masking while considering the characteristics of the headphones,
ambient noise, and music. The system utilizes a psychoacoustic masking model to estimate the level to which the music should be raised to have the same perceived tonal
balance in noise as it has in a quiet environment. Prototype testing showed that the most important task is to make the music audible in each Bark band. The compensation
of the partial masking further improves the perceived sound quality. The system uses a microphone of a headset to capture the ambient noise. The equalization is
implemented using a high-order graphical equalizer that does not require subband decomposition of the music signal. The proposed equalizer also retains reasonable SPL
levels: in an example case, the maximum gain in one Bark band was 11 dB while the overall SPL increase was only 2.5 dB.
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Sound Examples |
- Music in bus noise
Music in a simulated noise that has similar spectral energy to a typical bus noise. Note that in the first part of the sample sound (unprocessed sound) bass sounds are masked by the bus noise
and in the second part (processed with the PEQ) the bass sounds are clearly audible.
- Sample sound: First unprocessed signal and after that the PEQ processed signal
- EQ curve: Approximate EQ curve used in the PEQ processing
- Music in babble noise
Music in a simulated noise that has similar spectral energy to a babble noise. Note that in this type of noise the PEQ boosts middle
frequencies more than in the bus noise example. Furthermore, the PEQ processing clearly enhances the perception of the stereo image by boosting the bass and guitar sounds.
- Sample:: First unprocessed signal and after that the PEQ processed signal
- EQ curve: Approximate EQ curve used in the PEQ processing
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