The Science of Hi-Fi Audio
By John Beerends, Richard Van Everdingen
Despite great advances in quantifying sound quality, engineers are still struggling to satisfy the subjective ways listeners respond to music.
This Article From Issue
January-February 2025
Volume 113, Number 1
Page 32
The swell of the orchestra reaches a crescendo, all of the instruments together creating a swirling field of sound that fills the concert hall and surrounds the listener. Anyone who has ever attended a classical music concert has probably encountered that joyous feeling of being completely immersed in sound. But most of us don’t have an orchestra at home, and a large orchestra probably would not fit in there, anyway.
QUICK TAKE
- The goal of high-fidelity audio is to capture the feeling of a live musical event. Doing so requires more than just reproducing sound accurately, without audible distortion or noise.
- Perceptual measurement techniques provide an effective way to evaluate sound quality for speech. But the techniques cannot fully capture subjective impressions of music.
- A sense of immersion is crucial for a satisfying musical experience. Most commercial systems fail in that regard; the authors propose a new solution, using both direct and diffuse sound.
American Scientist Comments and Discussion
To discuss our articles or comment on them, please share them and tag American Scientist on social media platforms. Here are links to our profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
If we re-share your post, we will moderate comments/discussion following our comments policy.