Transaural synthesis technique and studies in spectral cues on the sagittal plane

Based on the cross-talk cancellation method, a transaural synthesis technique (VRX) was developed, simulating real sources at an arbitrary location using two synthesis loudspeakers and two probe microphones placed in the listeners’ ear canals. The simulation is accurate up to 16 kHz. This method allows the experimenters to modify the presented spectra in the listeners’ ears in great detail while enabling the listeners to use their pinna cues during an experiment. The VRX experiments with broadband complex tones show that listeners used a variety of strategies in localizing sources in front and back, comparing cues in multiple frequency bands; the role of spectral dips appeared to be more important than peaks; for interaural time difference less than 200 μs, listeners could correctly localize on front/back, independent of the azimuth cues [Zhang and Hartmann, Hear. Res. 260, 30–46 (2010)]. The current talk discusses the findings by Hartmann and colleagues using the VRX technique and their impact on our current understanding of sound localization on the sagittal plane.