To many interesting topic to mention. To highlight a few that regularly are topic of discussion on the forum:
Limits of the cochlear bandpass
Presents an alternative method to measure the frequency limits of our hearing, making use of music in the test signals. We know audiophiles love tests they can relate to. Spoiler alert; they already gave away some results: "Contrary to previous literature about the cochlea’s limits, the threshold for this population was 16kHz". Damn, again no hope for 'high res.' format extended bandwidth.
Capturing audience film sound preferences
Presents "an audience survey (n = 500) to better understand film audience experiences along with their preferences in terms of reproduction hardware and relative listening levels". The objective is "to develop an adaptive mixing framework in order to deliver a personalised listening experience on stationary and mobile devices". So it looks like a few people in the industry do care.
Microphone Comparison for Female R&B Vocal Recording
Presents vocal recordings done via 7 different microphones, subjectively evaluated by 17 sound engineers. Will the statistics show a clear trend, or is preference totally personal as many believe?
Detection of phase alignment and polarity in drum tracks
Phase, timing and transients are always hot topics amongst audiophiles. This study concerns a listening test of time and phase corrected recordings of a live drum to see how audible the difference is. Cliffhanger: "Evidence here questions the tacit assumption that time-shift techniques have the claimed influence to greatly improve, or even appreciably alter, the observed quality of a drum mix".