Abstract

The auditory system enables listeners to estimate the localization of auditory events resorting notablyto individual binaural cues and room reflections reaching the eardrum. For hearing-impaired listenersusing hearing aids, those cues are possibly distorted or not available in various situations such as re-mote microphone systems. This can make auditory distance evaluation a challenging task and oftenresults in inside-the-head sound perception. The present study aims at evaluating the effect of sev-eral binaural rendering strategies on auditory externalization in hearing-impaired and normal-hearinglisteners. Within a multiple-stimulus listening paradigm, normal-hearing and moderate-to-highly-profound hearing-impaired listeners were asked to rate the perceived distance of various stimulipresented over headphones, while visual cues were available. Results show that a degree of exter-nalization can be achieved for most of the aided hearing-impaired listeners with a simple genericspatialization method and superimposed early reflections.

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