Speech-in-noise performances in virtual cocktail party using different non-individual Head Related Transfer Functions

It is widely accepted that, within the binaural spatialisation domain, the choice of the Head Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) can have an impact on localisation accuracy and, more in general, realism and sound sources externalisation. The impact of the HRTF choice on speech-in-noise performances in cocktail party scenarios has though not yet been investigated in depth. Within a binaurally-rendered virtual environment, Speech Reception Thresholds (SRTs) with frontal target speaker and lateral noise maskers were measured for 22 subjects several times across different sessions, and using different HRTFs. Results show that for the majority of the tested subjects, significant differences could be found between the SRTs measured using different HRTFs. Furthermore, the HRTFs leading to better or worse SRT performances were not the same across the subjects, indicating that the choice of the HRTF can indeed have an impact on speech-in-noise performances within the tested conditions. These results suggest that when testing speech-in-noise performances within binaurally-rendered virtual environments, the choice of the HRTF should be carefully considered. Furthermore a recommendation should be made for future modelling of the speech-in-noise perception mechanisms to include monoaural spectral cues in addition to interaural difference