Set up and preliminary validation of a small spatial sound reproduction system for clinical purposes

Hearing research and audio technology have met to cope with hearing impairment issues under multiple aspects. Among them, spatial sound reproduction systems have been used for both clinical and research purposes to optimize signal processing algorithms of Hearing Aids (HAs) and for the assessment of hearing loss under complex acoustic conditions. Furthermore, spatial sound reproduction systems are also well suited for the administration of listening tests properly designed to optimize HAs fittings, for which ecological validity is crucial to achieve effective hearing improvement in daily life. Based on well-grounded 3D sound systems, this work discusses the procedure of installation, signal network set-up and evaluation of a Virtual Sound Environment (VSE) reproduction system that is meant to be replicated and used indoors in small settings for clinical purposes. The system, aimed at reproducing sound fields starting from 3rd-order ambisonics encodings, is based on a spherical array of 16 commercial 2-way active loudspeakers installed inside of a small acoustically dampened room of 35.5 m3. Results of this work can be summarized as follows: (i) a small spatial sound reproduction system was tuned and (ii) a preliminary investigation of the accuracy of the reproduced VSEs compared to the real environments was performed.