Comparison of subjective assessments obtained from listening tests through headphones and loudspeaker setups

Abstract : Sound reproduction over headphones is, because of its convenience, indifferently used to reproduce and assess a large variety of audio contents. Nevertheless, it is not yet proven that differences between sound sequences are equally perceived when played back through headphones as using dedicated loudspeaker systems. This study aims at evaluating whether differences and preferences between excerpts are equally perceived using these two reproduction methods. Various types of audio contents, issued by two different recording systems, were then to be compared on both headphones and loudspeaker setups. The results indicate that the two reproduction methods provided consistent similarity and preference judgments. This suggests that the features involved in similarity and preference assessments were preserved when reproducing these excerpts over headphones.