An Objective Analysis Method for Perceptual Quality of a Virtual Bass System

Due to the physical size and frequency response constraints of miniaturized and flat panel loudspeakers, low frequency reproduction from these loudspeakers is generally limited and unsatisfactory. The virtual bass system (VBS) enhances the bass performance of such loudspeakers by tricking the human brain to perceive the fundamental frequency from its higher harmonics. Problematically, the additional harmonics from VBS can also introduce perceptual distortion and reduce the audio quality. Therefore, a reliable method to assess the quality of VBS-enhanced signals is necessary in the designing of VBS. Since subjective experiments are often time-consuming and may be inconsistent, it is desirable to develop an objective assessment method for VBS. Earlier studies only utilized some simple objective metrics, which generally do not consider the human auditory model and are unable to accurately predict the perceptual quality of VBS. In this paper, we introduce a perceptual quality-assessment method for VBS based on the model output variables (MOVs) of the ITU Recommendation ITU-R BS.1387. Suitable combinations of MOVs are selected to derive perceptual quality metrics that correlate closely to the subjective quality. A verification experiment is presented to justify the accuracy of the metrics.