The role of reflections from behind the listener in spatial impression

This paper describes the results of two subjective experiments to clarify t he role of reflections arriving from behind the listener in the perception of spatial impression. The experiments investigate the effects of reflectio ns from behind the listener on both listener envelopment (LEV) and auditory source width (ASW) and which is more effective for LEV, the early or late reflections. The results of experiments clearly show that: (1) The listener can perceive LEV and ASW as two distinct senses of a sound image. (2) The role of reflections arriving from behind the listener is to increase LEV in spatial impression. Namely LEV increases as the relative reflection energy of sound arriving from behind the listener increases. (3) The early reflec tions also contributes to the perception of LEV, while (4) the late reflect ions are more effective for LEV than the early ones. However, it cannot be definitely concluded whether C-80 affects LEV or not. (C) 2000 Elsevier Sci ence Ltd. All rights reserved.