Study and evaluation of binaural audio processing and rendering aimed at professional audio monitoring.

The purpose of this thesis is to study and analyze the subjective perception of both expert sound engineers and audio technicians from RAI regarding HeadRelated Transfer Functions (HRTFs). More specifically, it aims to determine which of the tested HRTFs most closely resembles loudspeaker listening by subjecting participants to a tailored test designed for the evaluation of selected HRTFs. The study seeks to compare and analyze various HRTFs, including those from artificial heads such as KEMAR and KU100, as well as personalized HRTFs of the different sound engineers, which are calculated and processed through specific procedures in order to maintain consistency between the test conditions. Additionally, it investigates differences among the selected HRTFs in terms of impulse response length and headphone equalization. The subjective test is conducted in a 7.1.4 studio at RAI, where participants will listen to various musical and non-musical files to assess various attributes identified in the literature. The evaluation focuses on comparing the different HRTFs against a reference, aiming to determine which choice best replicates loudspeaker listening. The results aim to understand the preferences of sound engineers and the differences between the HRTFs in terms of quality, spatial rendering, and perception. The test outcomes show a preference for the KU100 Far Field at 128 samples and indicate that personalized HRTFs are preferred with headphone equalization rather than without.