Robustness of Multiple Listener Equalization With Magnitude Response Averaging

Traditionally, room response equalization is performed to improve sound quality at a given listener. However, room responses vary with source and listener positions. Hence, in a multiple listener environment, equalization may be performed through spatial averaging of magnitude responses at locations of interest. However, the performance of averaging based equalization, at the listeners, may be affected when listener positions change. In this paper, we present a statistical approach to map variations in listener positions to a performance metric of equalization for magnitude response averaging. The results indicate that, for the analyzed listener configurations, the zone of equalization depends on distance of microphones from a source and the frequencies in the sound. AES 113TH CONVENTION, LOS ANGELES, CA, USA, 2002 OCTOBER 5–8 1