Concept of a Laboratory for Psychoacoustic Experiments with Virtual Acoustics

The ongoing studies on interrelations of virtual acoustics and hearing research we conducted over the past decade [1-8] led us through some pitfalls and avoidable drawbacks before we had established a laboratory that integrates our procedural experiences on the subject. The laboratory now provides the user in an acoustically versatile environment with an integrated and cross-linked infrastructure for conducting physical measurements and perceptual studies with a single or a combination of different audio/video-playback procedures at the same time, all controlled via Ethernet by a single consumer PC. The available audio-playback systems include an individually controlled 96-channel loudspeaker system, conventional discrete multichannel playback systems, and various headphone presentation setups. The laboratory contains a head-tracking system and visual presentation hardware.