Skilled Listener Training for Automobiles

Skilled Listener Training

The Skilled Listening Seminar is a two-day course which can convert participants into trained, wxoert listeners. This course uses a mix of slides and music demonstrations to create strong listening skills and an understanding of sound evaluation terms.

A state-of-the-art dipole speaker based music system is used for breathtaking and revealing musical performance demonstrations. The sound produced by this system should not be missed.

Objectives of Listener Training

The Skilled Listening seminar will teach students how to listen to reproduced music using a critical and capable methodology.

The seminar's focus is to enable students to properly evaluate music reproduction systems, and, in particular, vehicular audio systems.

Predicting and enhancing customer satisfaction with vehicular audio will be the typical student's goal.

Listening Seminar Structure

The seminar will be presented with an interactive PowerPoint/audio system setup, assembled in your facility or elsewhere in a suitable conference room or hotel suite setting.

The combination of visual reference and extensive sound demonstrations improves the students skills in an efficient manner.

The Reference Listening System

A carefully-tuned, state-of-the-art reference multichannel listening system will be provided for listener training. If the training uses the SAI reference system, the system will be capable of producing powerful sounds from below 26 Hz to 20,000 Hz.

The listening room space we use will be arranged to maximize sound presentation. You will hear precise imaging and a level of detail and envelopment you may not have yet experienced.

Computer-based signal manipulation will demonstrate a large number of tonal, spatial, and other acoustic/psychoacoustic phenomena.

Music used will be provided by Stroud Audio Inc., but we should also include music you provide as typically used by your customer base (especially if non-US).

Listener Training Demonstrations

The reference listening system will be used for a number of interactive listening demonstrations. These include:

Tonal Issues

Bass/treble tilt, "smiles and frowns", bass and treble extension, octave wide imbalances, spectral peaks and dips (broad and narrow), and the "rule" of 400,000.

Spatial Issues

Right-left balance, time-intensity tradeoffs, stage width and depth, front-to-back imaging, consonant pull, center speaker stage and image depth reduction, artificial reverberation, and envelopment.

System Dynamics

High level performance: bass capability, overall level capability, clipping distortion audibility, bass compression.

Low-Level Performance

Loudness compensation-bass and treble Liveliness Quality: Characteristics of a high-end sound system: detailing, definition, etc.

Audio System Performance
Evaluation Methodology

An evaluation method which minimizes listener bias and enhances repeatability will be learned. The skilled listener will mark a scoresheet from which system performance numbers are derived.

During the training, the reference system and available vehicle sound systems will be evaluated by the students.

A Sound Evaluation Language

The Skilled Listening Seminar gives you and your team an engineering language to describe a system's audio performance. This allows teams to better optimize value for your customer.

For more information and seminar scheduling, please contact SAI