Headphone Distortion Audibility: Subjective Perception and Psychoacoustic Measurements

In this live recording, 2 of the world’s leading distortion experts -  Steve Temme and Sean Olive - share a stage at the Bay Area AES Chapter meeting for a deep dive into headphone distortion audibility, bridging the gap between objective measurement and subjective perception. This is a rare opportunity to see measurement science and listening experience examined side by side, providing a more complete understanding of what distortion really means in modern headphones. Sean Olive presents research on the perception and measurement of nonlinear distortion in headphones, exploring thresholds of audibility using real music and multiple measurement techniques. His findings challenge common assumptions, showing that distortion becomes audible at playback levels significantly higher than typical listening conditions—and highlighting what this means for future headphone design and evaluation. Steve Temme approaches distortion from a psychoacoustic perspective, explaining how we perceive it, why traditional metrics can fall short, and how methods like Normalized THD better align with human hearing. He also examines the trade-offs introduced by active noise cancellation, demonstrating how reducing one type of distortion can unintentionally impact perceived sound quality. #audiomeasurement #distortion #headphonedistortion #AES #audioevents