An Initial Validation of Individualized Crosstalk Cancellation Filters for Binaural Perceptual Experiments

Crosstalk cancellation provides a means of delivering binaural stimuli to a listener for psychoacoustic research which avoids many of the problems of using headphone in experiments. The aim of this study was to determine whether individual crosstalk cancellation filters can be used to present binaural stimuli which are perceptually indistinguishable from a real sound source. The fast deconvolution with frequency dependent regularisation method was used to design crosstalk cancellation filters. The reproduction loudspeakers were positioned at ±90 degrees azimuth and the synthesised location was 0 degrees azimuth. Eight listeners were tested with three types of stimuli. In twenty-two out of the twenty-four listener/stimulus combinations there were no perceptible differences between the real and virtual sources. The results suggest that this method of producing individualised crosstalk cancellation filters is suitable for binaural perceptual experiments.