Sound Quality Perception of Loudspeakers Evaluated by Different Sensory Descriptive Methods and Preference Mapping

Quantitative Descriptive Analysis (QDA) was compared with novel sensory methodology on five high-end loudspeakers using five tracks. The focus of the study was on the ability of different sensory methods to predict quality assessments (liking) made by consumers. Preference mapping indicates that projective mapping (PM) and Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) when performed with experts can provide results comparable to QDA, although slightly less accurate. PM done by consumers is less comparable to QDA. Combinations of the sensory tests were also attempted without any clear improvement of results. Practical applications: The results indicate that it may be possible to replace QDA with more rapid sensory methodology for assessing sensory quality of audio products. This may speed up and simplify product development process. However, further studies will be needed to consolidate the results.