Sensory Profiling Of High-End Loudspeakers Using Rapid Methods - Part 4: Flash Profile With Expert Assessors

This study is the fourth in a series of papers investigating different rapid sensory profiling methods applied to audio stimuli [1, 2, 3]. In particular, this paper considers Flash Profile, a verbal-based method that allows assessors to use their own vocabulary, for perceptual audio evaluation. A listening test was conducted with expert listeners, investigating the ability of Flash Profile to describe and discriminate five sets of high-end loudspeakers. The influence of using different audio-stimuli in order to get a broader perceptual image is supported by doing a track by track analysis, using Multiple Factor Analysis [4, 5]. The results suggest that the differences between loudspeakers lie in two main dimensions related to the timbral and spatial characteristics of the stimuli. Flash Profile seem to be a time-efficient tool for visualization and reduction of perceptual dimensions, being useful for the description and discrimination of a set of audio stimuli with medium to small audible differences.