A Loudness-Based Adaptive Equalization Technique for Subjectively Improved Sound Reproduction

Sound equalization is a common approach for objectively or subjectively defining the reproduction level at specific frequency bands. It is also well-known that the human auditory system demonstrates an inner process for soundweighting. Due to this, the perceived loudness changes with the frequency and the user-defined sound reproduction gain, resulting into a deviation of the intended and the perceived equalization scheme as the sound level changes. In this work we introduce a novel equalization approach that takes into account the above perceptual loudness effect in order to achieve subjectively constant equalization. A series of listening tests shows that the proposed equalization technique is an efficient and listener-preferred alternative for both professional and home audio reproduction applications.