Auralization systems for auditory research should ideally be validated by perceptualexperiments, as well as objective measures. This study employed perceptual tests to evaluate arecently proposed binaural real-time auralization system for hearing aid (HA) users. Thedynamic localization of real sound sources was compared with that of virtualized ones,reproduced binaurally over headphones, loudspeakers with crosstalk cancellation (CTC) filters,research HAs, or combined via loudspeakers with CTC filters and research HAs under free-fieldconditions. System-inherent properties affecting localization cues were identified and theireffects on overall horizontal localization, reversal rates, and angular error metrics wereassessed. The general localization performance in combined reproduction was found to fallbetween what was measured for loudspeakers with CTC filters and research HAs alone.Reproduction via research HAs alone resulted in the highest reversal rates and angular errors.While combined reproduction helped decrease the reversal rates, no significant effect wasobserved on the angular error metrics. However, combined reproduction resulted in the sameoverall horizontal source localization performance as measured for real sound sources, whileimproving localization compared with reproduction over research HAs alone. Collectively, theresults with respect to combined reproduction can be considered a performance indicator forfuture experiments involving HA users.
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