Envelopment vs. Engulfment: Multidimensional scaling on the effect of spectral content within a three-dimensional loudspeakers

Perceptual research into the elevated plane has included localisation and spatial attributes. It is generally accepted that the inclusion of elevated loudspeakers contributes to the listening experience and has led to the standardisation of loudspeaker setups that have elevated loudspeakers as part of their configurations - which include NHK 22.2, Auro 3D and Atmos. The term "envelopment" has been used to describe the sense of being surrounded by sound within three-dimensional loudspeaker configurations, however it has been argued by Sazdov et al., (2007) that with the use of elevated loudspeakers presents a different listening experience and which is termed "engulfment" - covered by sound. As discussed in the results of Sazdov (2011), there was a strong correlation between horizontally positioned loudspeakers and the perception of envelopment and elevated loudspeaker to the perception of engulfment. Further, the use of elevated loudspeakers was found to not contribute to the perception of envelopment. However, multidimensional scaling has yet to be undertaken on the perception of envelopment and engulfment within a three- dimensional loudspeaker configuration. The current experiment will report on the effect spectral content has on the perception of envelopment and engulfment within a three-dimensional loudspeaker configuration, focusing on the experimental design, procedure and results of the multidimensional scaling.