Does the method matter? A review of the main testing methods for the subjective evaluation of room acoustics through listening tests.

Listening tests are experimental procedures in which a group of participants are asked to express their opinion about certain questions regarding some stimuli that they have been urged to listen to. The listening tests have proved their effectiveness as methods for the subjective assessment of sound perception in different fields of acoustics, and particularly in room acoustics and sound insulation. The way in which the listening test is conducted, how the participant's response is expressed and how the stimuli are presented to the participants define what it is known as the testing/query method. There is not yet a common methodological framework that defines which testing method is the best for each purpose and under what conditions the experiments are to be carried out. The purpose of this communication is to review the most commonly used testing methods in the subjective assessment of sound and to present the advantages and disadvantages of each of them when they are used for the evaluation of the subjective perception of a sample of population.