Comparison of precedence effect behavior in anechoic chamber with that in ordinary room

Abstract

The precedence effect is well known as one of auditory illusions occurred by using multiple sound sources with similar sound output. When a sound is followed by similar sound separated with relatively short time delay, a single fused sound image is localized at the source position corresponding to the first-arriving sound. This feature is applicable to public address systems, which make audience perceive the sound image different from the actual sound source positions prepared for the system, with some sound reinforcement achieved. In spite of many studies in this phenomenon, the behavior of the precedence effect has been investigated for limited sound source arrangements in laboratory environments like anechoic chamber. On the other hand, this behavior in the ordinary room is not obvious, and it is effective to clarify the difference of the behavior of the precedence effect in anechoic chamber from that in the ordinary room for the application of the precedence effect to the public address system. In this study, the similar sound sources were installed both in the lecture room and in the anechoic chamber, and the behavior of the precedence effect was compared each other with the given time and level difference among sound sources. © 2013 Acoustical Society of America.