Preference versus Reference: Listeners as participants in sound reproduction

A basic tenet of sound reproduction is the concept of 'fidelity', meaning as many aspects of the acoustical context of an original recording be reproduced as faithfully as possible to please the 'critical listener'. The point of reference may either be the studio control room or a live venue, and deviation in reproduction may be objectively quantified within limits. More recently the importance of quantifying subjective response so as to build a point of reference based on preference data has been introduced. An alternative model considers the critical listener as a participant in the sound reproduction process, for whom the sensation of 'ideal reproduction' is malleable and that can take many forms. From this standpoint, the taxonomy of attributes such as timbre, level and spatial reproduction fall short of any point of reference in many real-world audio reproduction contexts, and yet the critical listener is satisfied. Furthermore there is no reason to assume that preference is 'time invariant', although this is frequently assumed. Acoustic analyses of loudspeaker playback in typical rooms are suggestive of spatial characteristics that are the result of conscious or unconscious participation by the end user. It is suggested that there are spatial attributes that fall out of this participation that are currently undervalued in current research.