Monaural Phase Effects for Two-Tone Signals

Abstract

Effects of relative phase on subjective quality were found for signals with two components having a frequency ratio of 1:2 (octave). The data were analyzed by means of INDSCAL, a multidimensional scaling program. The subjective space corresponding to different phase conditions is a circle, and equal phase differences correspond to equal distances along the circle. These results confirm the sensitivity of the auditory system to waveform even when only two frequency components are involved, and they demonstrate that perception of the two-component signal falls into an orderly pattern.