Virtual acoustic environments enable the creation and simulation of realistic
and ecologically valid daily-life situations with applications in hearing
research and audiology. Hereby, reverberant indoor environments play an
important role. For real-time applications, simplifications in the room
acoustics simulation are required, however, it remains unclear what acoustic
level of detail (ALOD) is necessary to capture all perceptually relevant
effects. This study investigates the effect of varying ALOD in the simulation
of three different real environments, a living room with a coupled kitchen, a
pub, and an underground station. ALOD was varied by generating different
numbers of image sources for early reflections, or by excluding geometrical
room details specific for each environment. The simulations were perceptually
evaluated using headphones in comparison to binaural room impulse responses
measured with a dummy head in the corresponding real environments. The study
assessed the perceived overall difference for a pink pulse, and a speech token.
Furthermore, plausibility and externalization were evaluated. The results show
that a strong reduction in ALOD is possible while obtaining similar
plausibility and externalization as with dummy head recordings. The number and
accuracy of early reflections appear less relevant, provided diffuse late
reverberation is appropriately accounted for.Comment: This work has been submitted to the I3DA 2023 International
Conference on Immersive and 3D Audio for possible publicatio