Muddy, muddled, or muffled? Understanding the perception of audio quality in music by hearing aid users

Introduction Previous work on audio quality evaluation has demonstrated a developing convergence of the key perceptual attributes underlying judgments of quality, such as timbral, spatial and technical attributes. However, across existing research there remains a limited understanding of the crucial perceptual attributes that inform audio quality evaluation for people with hearing loss, and those who use hearing aids. This is especially the case with music, given the unique problems it presents in contrast to human speech. Method This paper presents a sensory evaluation study utilising descriptive analysis methods, in which a panel of hearing aid users collaborated, through consensus, to identify the most important perceptual attributes of music audio quality and developed a series of rating scales for future listening tests. Participants (N = 12), with a hearing loss ranging from mild to severe, first completed an online elicitation task, providing single-word terms to describe the audio quality of original and processed music samples; this was completed twice by each participant, once with hearing aids, and once without. Participants were then guided in discussing these raw terms across three focus groups, in which they reduced the term space, identified important perceptual groupings of terms, and developed perceptual attributes from these groups (including rating scales and definitions for each). Results Findings show that there were seven key perceptual dimensions underlying music audio quality (clarity, harshness, distortion, spaciousness, treble strength, middle strength, and bass strength), alongside a music audio quality attribute and possible alternative frequency balance attributes. Discussion We outline how these perceptual attributes align with extant literature, how attribute rating instruments might be used in future work, and the importance of better understanding the music listening difficulties of people with varied profiles of hearing loss.


Background Questionnaire
In order to understand more about your perception of music with hearing loss, it would be helpful for us to know some detail about participant characteristics.This includes demographics, your history of hearing loss and use of hearing aids, and your musical background and preferences.
We will use this information mainly to describe the characteristics of the sensory panel when we write up the results, but may also use this to explore patterns in the online listening task data.You will not be identified individually on the basis of your responses.All data will be kept confidential as outlined in the Participant Information Sheet for this study.

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This survey should take around 10-15 mins to complete.
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Please provide your participant identification number.
Note -This is the same number you would have used to complete the online listening task previously (you would have originally received this via email for the first online listening task).But any issues with this, please do send us an email.

GOLD-MSI
The following questions explore your engagements with music, any musical training your might have received, and your experiences of music.
Importantly, it may be that some of these questions feel difficult or challenging to answer, as some may reflect issues you experience with music listening or performance.
Although it is perhaps unlikely, if at any point you do not feel comfortable or happy with completing these questions, you are of course able to stop at any time.
For each of the following statements, please select the most appropriate category: For this question, please fill in the gap with a number, using the space provided: For this question, please fill in the gap with a number, using the space provided: For this question, please fill in the gap with a number, using the space provided: For this question, please specify a musical instrument (including voice) in the space provided:

STOMP-R
As a final set of questions, please indicate your basic preference for each of the following genres: As always, if there is any feedback that you would want to give in terms of the questionnaire or the sensory panel study, please do feel free to type your comments in the space provided below.
in following / taking part in a conversation May have real difficulty following / taking part in a conversation Have difficulty hearing and taking part in conversation Have great difficulty hearing and taking part in conversation Have very great difficulty hearing and taking part in remember / unsure It was a sudden change It happened gradually over many months Please describe the patterns of your hearing loss as well as you can Tinnitus refers to the perception of noise in your head or ears (such as ringing or buzzing) in the absence of any corresponding source of sound external to your head.Over the past year, have you had tinnitus in your head or in one or both ears that lasts for more than five minutes at a time?Hearing Aids How long have you worn hearing aids?It happened gradually over many years I do not remember / unsure Greater at high frequencies than low frequencies Greater at low frequencies than at high frequencies Greater at medium than at low or high frequencies Almost the same at all frequencies Not sure Yes, most of the time Yes, a lot of the time Yes, some of the time No, not in the past year Nomore Using the picture above, what type of hearing aids do you use?Behind the ear (BTE) (e. g. with earmould in the ear or with thin tubing and a soft dome) Receiver in the ear (RITE) (sits in the ear canal and the shell of the ear) In the canal (ITC) (the whole hearing aid fits inside the ear canal, but it can be seen) Completely in the canal (CIC) (this fits further into your ear canal than an ITC aid, and is almost invisible) Bone Conducted Hearing Instrument (BCHI) or Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA) Not sure / Do not know Using the pictures above, what dome or mould does your hearing aid have?Do you have a special program in your hearing aids for music?How frequently do you use your music program?Open: soft dome with openings Open: earmould with vent Closed: sealed dome Closed: earmould with no vent Not applicable (e.g., in the canal hearing aid) below, in a few sentences please feel free to summarise your current experiences of listening to music with hearing aids: