Effect of Audio Production Experience, Musical Training, and Age on Listener Performance in 3D Audio Evaluation

Abstract

A study was undertaken to determine the effect of audio production experience, musical training and technical ear training, age, and previous experience listening to 3D music recordings on listener performance within the context of 3D audio evaluation. Subjects ranging from highly experienced to naive listeners evaluated an excerpt of orchestral music captured by three different 3D music recording techniques. By combining the results with those of a previous study. it was found that both audio production experience and musical training are significant predictors of listener performance and that listener performance increases with age until 36 years.