Movie Sound, Part 2: Preference and Attribute Ratings of Six Listening Environments

In this study, the assessors evaluated the alterations in the sound field of six movie listening environments. The sound fields of the listening environments were auralized to an anechoic listening room with 45 loudspeakers so that assessors could compare the rooms with each other directly. 31 experienced listeners evaluated five descriptive attributes on a continuous scale for each room with two program material items, dialogue and music. The preference ratings for the rooms were also collected. The perceptual evaluations were compared to the objective electroacoustic data of the rooms. The sense of space, clarity, and distance match the measured clarity C50 at the middle frequencies, while the brightness matches the level of the high frequencies in the electroacoustic response above 4 kHz. No psychoacoustical support was found for the current standards, according to which the high frequencies should be attenuated more in large cinemas with longer reverberation than in small cinemas. It turned out that the movie sound professionals do not prefer either too dead or too live listening environments.