Kenneth D. Jacob
Morten J(slashed oh)rgensen
Christopher B. Ickler
Bose Corp., The Mountain, Framingham, MA 01701
Auralization systems are beginning to appear in the professional sound industry. Each claims the ultimate benefit of ``hearing the sound system before it is installed.'' But how much work has been done to substantiate these claims? Can the customer always judge the sound system performance based on what he or she hears on the auralization system? Before any auralization system can be used, it must be ``authenticated.'' Authentication is the process of verifying that what people hear on an auralization system is the same---or almost the same---as what they would hear in the real environment. A systematic approach to authentication of auralization systems will be described. In this approach, the purpose of the auralization system, along with the perceptual parameters to be tested must first be defined. Then subject-based listening tests---typically one for each perceptual parameter---must be designed, conducted, and evaluated. It will be shown that this authentication process, when followed, can be used to characterize any auralization system.