# What happens to externalization, distance and direction when a binaural recording made in one room is played back in a different room, and does the cause lie in what the listener sees or hears?

- id: art_01M5MV9Q04AJPN7XE670J0237T
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T13, T14, T19 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T17:00:22.910Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5MV9Q04AJPN7XE670J0237T

In one open-access experiment (Gil-Carvajal et al. 2016; 18 listeners, individual BRIRs from a 0.4 s room, static head, headphones), playing the binaural speech back in a much more reverberant room (2.8 s) left only about 18% of distance ratings correct, while direction and compactness ratings did not depend on the room; changing only what listeners could see had no effect, whereas changing what they could hear did. Reviews report a different study (Werner 2016) that found a visual effect, and caution that it lacked head motion; the sources therefore support the auditory-congruence finding for static headphone playback but not a settled answer for tracked playback.

In one open-access experiment (Gil-Carvajal et al. 2016; 18 listeners, individual BRIRs from a 0.4 s room, static head, headphones), playing the binaural speech back in a much more reverberant room (2.8 s) left only about 18% of distance ratings correct, while direction and compactness ratings did not depend on the room; changing only what listeners could see had no effect, whereas changing what they could hear did. Reviews report a different study (Werner 2016) that found a visual effect, and caution that it lacked head motion; the sources therefore support the auditory-congruence finding for static headphone playback but not a settled answer for tracked playback.

Curator qualifications: Gil-Carvajal 2016 (18 listeners): room mismatch (0.4 s BRIR replayed in 2.8 s room) left ~18% distance ratings correct; direction/compactness unaffected.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

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      "url": "https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC5112595/fullTextXML",
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    {
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      "note": "candidate evidence excerpts"
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Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] In one open-access experiment (Gil-Carvajal et al. 2016; 18 listeners, individual BRIRs from a 0.4 s room, static head, headphones), playing the binaural speech back in a much more reverberant room (2.8 s) left only about 18% of distance ratings correct, while direction and compactness ratings did not depend on the room; changing only what listeners could see had no effect, whereas changing what they could hear did. Reviews report a different study (Werner 2016) that found a visual effect, and caution that it lacked head motion; the sources therefore support the auditory-congruence finding for static headphone playback but not a settled answer for tracked playback. · locator: candidate evidence excerpts · source: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC5112595/fullTextXML

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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