A New Reference Listening Room for

Consumer, Professional & Automotive Audio

Research

Text
Text

by
Dr. Sean Olive
Director of Acoustic Research
Harman International R&D Group
 Overview
Harman Reference Listening Room:

Motivation for room

Description and features

Acoustical performance

Summary & Future Work

 Motivation
Global Harman standard listening
room for:

training & selecting listeners

product research & competitive

benchmarking

cross-site testing and validation

of listening test results
 Why a standard listening room?

Listening tests can be replicated at multiple

Harman sites while controlling important listening
room nuisance variables

Benefits:

cross-site test validation, larger listener pool,

greater flexibility in scheduling listening tests, study
cultural-demographic differences in preference
Listening Room Nuisance
Variables

Timbre Spatial

Influenc
e

Preference Distortion

Dynamics
 Main Features of Room
Quiet (low background noise)

Adjustable room acoustics

High quality calibrated

playback system

Automated in-wall speaker

mover

Automated control, collection

& analysis of listening test
data
 Harman Reference
Rooms
Bridgend
Farmington Hills Shanghai
Karlsbad
Northridge
 Room Dimensions
Rectangular shape (common & 2.74 m (h)
provides symmetrical distribution of
reflections )

Supports 7.4 channels arranged in

2.9 m
ITU-R circle 7.32 m (l)

Large enough for 6 listeners

6.4 m (w)
 Construction
1 layer of 1.9 cm plywood
3 layers of 1.59 gypsum
board
5.08 x 25.4 cm wood stud
15.24 cm metal stud 5 x 15.24 cm wood stud
1 layer of 1.27 cm gypsum board 1 layer of 1.9 cm plywood
filled with fiber glass 3 layers of 1.6 cm gypsum
1 layer of 1.27 cm gypsum board

Laminate floor 9.2 cm metal stud filled with

Foam Pad fiberglass
1.9 m plywood 1 layer of 1.27 cm gypsum
5 x10 cm wood studs on board
neoprene sleepers
 Acoustical Treatment
Removable wide-band absorptive and
diffusive wall treatments to simulate
variety of different acoustics

Removable area floor rug

First lateral sidewall reflections from

front channels left untreated to
encourage spaciousness, image
widening

Front + rear wall reflections absorbed

and diffused (< IACC)
 RT60 Measurements

No absorption (bare room)

Seats/carpet only

Absorption Only

Seats/Carpet + Absorption (no

diffusion)

Reference Setup (seats/carpet,

absorption + diffusion
Reference Room RT60
Background Noise

Note: Measurements are flawed > 1 kHz

and are being repeated due to self-noise
of microphones
Text

Microphone Self-noise

~ NC-15
 Playback System
Our requirements:

● Flat anechoic on-axis frequency response (± 1

dB) with smooth off-axis response
● extended bandwidth
● Low distortion
● Low seat-to-seat variance for in-room response
In-Room Loudspeaker Response

Average of
7
Front L
Front R
Front C
Side L
Side R
Rear L
Rear R

Each curve based on a spatial average over 6 seats with 48 ppo,

1/6-octave smoothed
AES-EB Firewire
U

Toslink

CAT-5
 In-wall speaker mover
Allows multiple comparisons
between three different in-wall /
on-wall /near-wall / desktop speaker
systems

Automated control via Harman

Listening Test software
 Loudspeaker Types For In-wall
Tests
On-wall Near-wall Desktop
In-wall

Acoustically transparent curtain

 Summary
New Harman Reference Room designed to control important
loudspeaker-room variables for product testing & research

Allows validation and comparison of test results across multiple Harman sites

Main features:

● low background noise

● adjustable room acoustics
● high quality multichannel playback over 6 listening seats
● automated control and data collection & analysis of listening test and
training results
 Future work
Provide objective and subjective verification that all
rooms are similar: perceptual confirmation using
binaural room scanning, listener training, test
results

Study perceptual effects of different acoustical

effects on loudspeaker-room interactions,
particularly how they influence performance of
loudspeaker-room correction technologies