Perceptual Differences for Modifications of the Elevation of Early Room Reflections

Paper in proceeding, 2022

Acoustic room responses usually comprise components that propagate in non-horizontal directions. Oftentimes, audio capture and reproduction systems are not capable of maintaining such elevation information reliably hence it is important to understand their perceptual significance when auralizing rooms. This work investigates the ability of the human hearing system to distinguish between early reflections with different elevation angles by performing loudspeaker- and headphone-based listening experiments using manipulated spatial room impulse responses. The results show that changing the elevation of a strong early reflection can lead to clearly perceivable differences and factors that influence the detectability are identified. Projecting all elevated reflections of a spatial room impulse response with no very prominent ceiling reflection to the horizontal plane showed no perceivable differences.