Project 1040 sound preference survey

Remember that one time we asked you to participate in a sound preference survey? Well, now we can tell you what it was about.

We are always working to change the status quo of microphone designs. That’s why it is essential for us to have audio engineers, producers, and musicians on board early when developing a new product.

This time we wanted to take it one step further and have as many of you on board as possible. That’s why we’ve invited you all to help us to shape the sound of our new flagship product which is currently in development.

The survey ran from 16.07.2019 until 31.08.2019, and we’ve collected 2.530 entries in total.

During the development process for our microphone system, we identified four different tube characteristics. Together, they need to be able to deliver the perfect sound.

We asked for your help to verify our approach scientifically, and to make sure that we’re heading in the right direction with each characteristic.

The main goal was to get answers to two fundamental questions.

1. Do you hear the difference between the sound characteristics in a blind test scenario?
    
2. Which sound mode is your preferred one?

We built a mini-website where you could listen to different sound samples and state your preference.

We asked you to listen to nine pairs of sound samples. Each sample was played three times, so we could find out who answered consistently.

Inconsistent answers were filtered out.

Each sound sample consisted of two variants of the same sound sample, and you could state your individual preference:

1. A better than B
2. B better than A
3. No preference

There were sound samples of female vocals, male vocals, and a guitar recording.

Thanks to your help, we were able to get answers to our questions.

Do people hear the difference between the sound characteristics in a blind test?
The answer was yes, a significant part of you differentiated the sounds consistently.

Which sound mode is the preferred one?
The four different sound characteristics were equally popular. It all came down to the personal taste of the individual participants.

We were relieved! The survey clearly verified that we were on the right path with Project 1040. And we are proud and grateful that so many of you took their time to make an impact on the development process of our next flagship product.

Fun fact on the side; The study also revealed that musicians hear more consistently than audio engineers do when it comes to comparing sound samples.

Years of experience

6,72% of users were beginners.
12,74% had > 1 year of experience.
25,13% had > 5 years of experience.
55,41% had > 10 years of experience.

Profession

We had the following options for the profession in our survey:

Musician – 32,94%
Engineer – 30,01%
Producer – 16,53%
Other – 20,53%

Consistency rate by profession

Musician - 19,54%
Engineer - 16,62%
Producer - 16,82%
Other - 19,57%