Subjective Evaluation of Microphones

The diploma thesis is blocked till 27.2.2013

The quality of microphones in the fields of studio and recording is given by the subjective evaluation of the customers at last. To turn these subjective impressions independent from individual opinions, in this thesis a method is developed, where different microphones of AKG in special listening tests and adequate statistical analytical methods be assessed concerning their differences in timbre. To afford a paired comparison, on a specially designed frame structure eleven microphones are arranged approximate coincident and several instruments are recorded simultaneous. For the listening test a common vocabulary is developed and the resulting Semantic Differentials as well as the preference of the testsignals are rated. Finally the information is reduced to a smaller group of significant Semantic Differentials by the Factor Analysis (Principle Component Analysis, PCA). In addition the method of Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) is applied in a second test also to reduce the dimension of the Semantic Differential and to show the different positions of the ratings in the perceptual space in a graphic way.