"Dr Nick Zacharov (FAES, C.Eng., M.Sc., B.Eng.(Hons.)) is a LEAD Technologist at FORCE Technology, SenseLab, Denmark, and widely recognised as one of the world’s leading authorities in the specialist field of quality assessment of sensory perception. With an academic background in electroacoustics, acoustics and signal processing, Nick has a broad industrial experience in the audio profession spanning from mobile phone audio to professional audio equipment design. His profound interest in audio quality is the cornerstone of his professional career. Having held engineering and managerial posts at Nokia, Genelec and DELTA, Nick co-founded SenseLab within DELTA in 2007, providing world-class listening tests and sensory evaluation services to the international audio community. He has been an active member of the Audio Engineering Society, serving as chairperson, co-chairman of conferences and AES governor in additions to being a member of several other professional societies. Nick has more than 90 publications to his name as well as several audio patents. Nick is also co-author of ""Perceptual Audio Evaluation – theory, method and application"", which is an acknowledged and widely used textbook in its field."
This excellent book is the natural successor to Perceptual Audio Evaluation - Theory, Method and Application by Soren Bech and Nick Zacharov. The measurement of audio quality has traditionally ignored the true experience of listening, understandably relying heavily on easily repeatable quantification techniques that cannot fully represent the sensations experienced by untrained listeners in everyday situations. The Sensory Evaluation of Sound methodically guides readers through contemporary methods of evaluating sound from a sensory perspective, which goes well beyond standardized audio measurement techniques. Nick Zacharov is a well-established expert in the field and has approached contributors of similar calibre to provide information about real life applications and the underpinning theory so that sound, reproduction systems and room acoustics can be evaluated effectively. We will be using this text on our undergraduate and postgraduate sound design degrees, as it clearly describes and more importantly justifies why sound is important and how to effectively capture a wide variety of listening experiences. Nick Zacharov's introduction provides an insightful synopsis of the field of sensory evaluation that is pertinent to anyone working with sound. Julian Treasure continues by highlighting how sound and its ubiquity affects human beings. More importantly he addresses the declining potential for silence, with its physiological, psychological, cognitive and behavioral consequences. It is possible to gain a thorough grounding in the field of listening tests from this text so that reliable experiments can be executed and reported using the superb guidance in the 15 highly informative chapters. This book should be essential reading for anyone working professionally in the field of sound and its many applications. -Iain McGregor, Edinburgh Napier University, UK This book includes an impressive collection of high-q