Headphones, as important sound reproduction devices, are widely used in modern communication. Headphone equalization can help improve high perceptual sound quality. No research on the perceptual implications of the phase response of headphones has been put forward.

In such circumstances, researchers from the Institute of Acoustics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IACAS) investigated in the effect of phase response on perceptual sound quality of headphones.

The study has been published online in Applied Acoustics.

The researchers used three equalization methods to realize different equalization goals. The magnitude equalization method was adopted to realize a flat magnitude response without a linear phase response. The phase equalization method was adopted to realize a linear phase response and keep the original magnitude response. The magnitude-phase response aimed to realize a flat magnitude response and a linear phase response. Evaluation of the three methods could help understand the separated and combined effects of a flat magnitude response and a linear phase response.

The objective evaluation implied that phase equalization was important to a faithful reproduction of transient sounds. The subjective evaluation implied that a linear phase response could significantly improve headphone reproduction in sound clarity while a flat magnitude response might deteriorate the subjective perception of sound quality.

This research provides application value for equalizing headphone to eardrum transfer function and improving headphone reproduction quality.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11504404 and 11604362). This work was also supported by IACAS Young Elite Researcher Project (Grant No. QNYC201720).

Figure 1. Subjective evaluation results. (Image by IOA)

Reference:

LI Guangju, ZHENG Chengshi, LI Xiaodong, YU Teng, Bleeck Stefan, SANG Jinqiu. Evaluation of headphone phase equalization on sound reproduction. Applied Acoustics, 2019, 156, 208-216. DOI: 10.1016/j.apacoust.2019.07.017.

Contact:

ZHOU Wenjia

Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190 Beijing, China

E-mail: media@mail.ioa.ac.cn