Use of Consumer Listening Panels to Enhance Sound Quality

Achieving a desired sound shares some similarities with achieving the right color, surface texture or shape for the product, in that sound involves peoples’ reactions, and the more favorable sound can be determined to only a very limited degree by physical measurements. However, the latter aspects are generally independent of other aspects of the design, while sound is affected by many of the basic features of the product. The sources of motion (motors, actuators, solenoids, etc.), their interconnections, and the structures that hold them in place all participate in determining the sound that is generated. The design has to somehow connect the choices for these physical components to the perceptual reactions of customers.