Relationships between experienced listener ratings of multichannel audio quality and naïve listener preferences

The preferences of a large number of naïve listeners were elicited in response to a selection of multichannel audio items that had been degraded in quality by using band-limiting and down-mixing algorithms. Relationships were sought between these preference ratings and the quality judgements of experienced listeners in an attempt to determine whether one could be predicted from the other. Results suggest that a simple regression model can be used to do this with adequate results, but that a better prediction can be successfully based on experienced listener ratings of timbral and spatial fidelity. There is a difference between naïve and experienced listeners in the weightings of the fidelities and their relationship to overall quality.