A novel approach for the equalization of low frequency response in the automotive space

We experience the coloring of reproduced sound in an automotive space in a different way than in a large space such as a concert hall. It comes from the well-separated acoustic modes in the low frequency range up to a relatively high crossover frequency. The unwanted sound coloring can be reduced by equalization. However, this is not a simple matter because the binaural response is different in each person and drivers are likely to move their heads while driving. We introduce a novel approach, based on minimum phase inversion, for the equalization of the low frequency response to compensate the coloring. We compare the proposed approach with the conventional least square based inversion and show the superiority of our approach by experiment. This is confirmed by the results of listening tests.