Quantification of Preference Relevant Sound Characteristics of Multi-Tone Sounds Based on the Differences Between Loudness Judgments and Preference Evaluations

The aim of this study is to quantify the impact of the ratio between fundamental frequencies and the contribution of the sound elements on the loudness and preference for intricate multi-tone sounds, consisting of two complex tones and additional combination tones. Preference evaluations and loudness judgments were determined in the form of levels at two points of subjective equality (PSEs) compared to a fixed, common reference sound. The level difference between the two PSEs is attributed to additional perceptual aspects of the multi-tone sounds, which in return become tangible and quantifiable in the form of dB-values. In this paper, the entirety of these additional perceptual aspects, apart from the loudness perception, is subsumed under the term sound character. The results show a clear differentiation between loudness judgments and preference evaluations by the participants and stable mean values for the level difference attributed to the sound character were obtained. The results demonstrate that a combination of two complex tones can be beneficial, whereas the addition of the combination tones has no adverse impact on the evaluation of this type of sound. For the evaluation of combined sounds, also the ratio between the fundamental frequencies affects the perception.