Measurement of Perceived Acoustic Quality of Sound-Reproducing Systems by Means of Factor Analysis

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Abstract
The factor analytic model, as here applied, conceives of a numerical quality judgment of a certain program played by a given reproducing device as a weighted sum of a measure of the quality of the different reproducing properties (e.g., purity of transients, full treble) possessed by the device in question. The weights constitute measures of the requirements made by the particular program on these properties. Factor analysis splits a raw-data matrix—consisting of, e.g., quality judgments for a number of combinations of program-loudspeaker systems—into two matrices: a factor loading matrix consisting of the weights and a factor-score matrix consisting of the quality of the reproducing properties. The rank of these matrices (number of factors) reflects the number of dimensions (properties) that implicitly enter into the listener's judgments. Four listeners judged, on a 7-point scale, the quality of 24 programs (music, speech, traffic noise, etc.) played on 10 sound reproducing systems of highly different general quality. The data were factor analyzed (component analysis of covariances), and factor loadings for the programs and factor scores for the loudspeaker systems were computed. Nine factors were extracted and rotated, and 7 of them tentatively interpreted (sound level, purity of transients, environmental information, bass boost, full-treble reproduction, high-treble relative midrange, disturbing directional effects). An attempt at validation showed good agreement between factor scores (reproducing properties) for the 4 listeners in spite of variation of preferences between listeners reflected in the factor loadings. Despite technical imperfections, it is concluded that factor analysis is a useful instrument for the assessment of acoustical properties.

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