Listener panel: Online listening experiment to rate the sound quality attributes of musical samples

by Prof Alinka Greasley & Dr Scott Bannister

New research is being conducted as part of the Cadenza Project (https://cadenzachallenge.org/), which seeks to develop measures of audio quality for music for people with hearing loss. The broader aim of using these measures is to develop novel signal processing strategies (methods that change the audio quality characteristics of music) that can be used in hearing aids and consumer devices to improve experiences of music.

The researchers are planning an online listening experiment that will take place in the coming months, in which participants will be asked to listen to many excerpts of music, and rate these in terms of their audio quality, using several attributes developed by hearing aid users.

They’re now looking to recruit potential research participants to this online listening experiment. Participation would involve being invited to have a hearing test, and listening in your homes to music excerpts for up to 5 hours in total; this duration of listening will be separated into smaller manageable blocks of time. You would be compensated for this time, and for travel costs for any hearing tests.

To be eligible to take part, prospective participants should be:

•             Bilateral hearing aid users

•             Have a hearing loss in the range of mild to moderately severe in their better ear

•             Between the ages of 18 and 90

•             Either:

.              Able to attend a university site (Leeds, or Nottingham) for a hearing test, OR:

.              Able to provide a recent audiogram (within the last 6 months)

•             Have access to a computer at home, with internet connection

Unfortunately, at this current stage and design of the research, there are some exclusion criteria that would prevent participation, including:

•             Cochlear implant use, or use of other hearing interventions besides acoustic hearing aids

•             Diagnosis of Meniere’s disease, or hyperacusis

•             Use of a programmable ventriculo-peritoneal (PVP) shunt

•             Severe tinnitus that is affected by music, or that interferes with your listening to music

If you are interested in potentially taking part, please feel free to complete a short Eligibility Questionnaire, found using the following link – https://universityleeds.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aW3GNlCCZ4XoCFg

You will be asked at the end of this questionnaire to provide your contact details to us if desired, so we can be in touch with further details about the online listener experiment.