Influence of Reproducing System on Tonal-Range Preferences

A paper has been published presenting the results of study of the tonal-range preferences of radio-broadcast listeners when listening to a system whose transmission characteristics were essentially uniform at all frequencies within the transmission band. The present report covers a new series of experiments designed to ascertain the preferences when listening to a system whose transmission characteristics are such as to compensate for the change in the response of the ear with loudness level. In addition, the effect of employing a reproducing system of entirely different components than those used in the original work was determined. The results of the study pertain to single-channel listening using present-day program pickup techniques. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Most listeners do not prefer a wide range even when a fully compensated system is used. (2) Most listeners choose about the same bandwidth with either a compensated or an uncompensated system. If anything, most prefer a slightly narrower range with a compensated system. (3) Most listeners like bass and dislike an excess of high frequencies in music. In speech, they dislike sibilance. (4) Other changes in the reproducing system-the transcription reproducer, the amplifier channel, and the loudspeaker-did not influence tonal-range preferences. It may be (although it seems doubtful) that such slight residual distortions as existed in the reproducing system are enough to make listeners dislike wide range. But this hypothesis can be tested only when new methods are found to reduce further both electrical and acoustical distortion.