Real-World Perception: Life Beyond the Listening Room

[Feature] In perceptual experiments there's an increasing emphasis on listening situations that represent real-world contexts such as mobile and in-car listening, where background noise can be high. The effect of background noise on listeners' mix preferences is not easy to predict, but the advent of object-based systems may enable one to adjust balance at the replay end of the chain. Distortion in car audio systems may only become a big problem for sound quality when the system is pushed to its limits, otherwise other factors are probably more important. In-ear headphones may be evaluated using simulation methods without undue disadvantages, provided that leakage is controlled and accounted for. Also time may be saved in certain types of listening tests, as long as care is taken with stimuli, and listeners are reasonably diligent. Finally, the attribute of "punch" may be predicted reasonably successfully using a new model.