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Psychophysics: localization accuracy vs frequency?

ajd578

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I've read that 80 Hz is a commonly used sub crossover point because humans lose the ability to localize sound source azimuth around the same frequency.

Can someone point me to a study that has demonstrated this empirically?
 

anotherhobby

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I don't know of any such actual study. Are you wondering because you want to use this information to select a crossover point?
 
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ajd578

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No, it just annoys me that this gets repeated so often yet I can't find the source. Most studies I find only use signals 250 Hz and up. These studies aren't trying to find some lower frequency limit - I haven't found one that is trying to do that, it just seems that 250 Hz became convention, somehow.

Conceptually it's a super easy experiment to run, but the trick is getting LF drivers with low enough distortion close enough together to measure minimum audible angle.
 
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Killingbeans

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Most studies I find only use signals 250 Hz and up

I don't see why the trend shouldn't continue as you go lower?

9781604063585_c001_f003.jpg
 
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ajd578

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I don't see why the trend shouldn't continue as you go lower?

9781604063585_c001_f003.jpg
I'm not 100% sure what this is, but I assume it's (possibly idealized) interaural level difference vs. azimuth and frequency. However, humans' azimuth judgements are dominated by interaural time/phase differences for low frequencies (the cutoff isn't totally clear, but roughly < 1000 Hz).
 

AdamG

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I've read that 80 Hz is a commonly used sub crossover point because humans lose the ability to localize sound source azimuth around the same frequency.

Can someone point me to a study that has demonstrated this empirically?
The origins of this “Recommendation” I believe came from research at THX labs during their Star Wars mastering days and has since been used in Commercial Movie Theater setups. Plenty to read just google TOM HOLMAN and Subwoffer 80hz crossover. How scientific is up to you to determine.
 
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