Sean Olive to Deliver Richard C. Heyser Memorial Lecture at the AES Show 2025 - Long Beach ConventionThe Audio Engineering Society announces that renowned audio researcher and AES past president Dr. Sean Olive will deliver the Richard C. Heyser Memorial Lecture at the upcoming AES Show 2025, taking place October 23-25 at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center. Olive's lecture, titled Make Audio Great Always: Using Science for Consistent Quality, will explore the results of decades of psychoacoustic research, including well-controlled double-blind listening tests that have identified which loudspeakers, headphones and listening environments consistently deliver the most preferred sound quality. He will address how objective measurements can predict listener preferences, the improvements already realized in product quality and affordability, and how the industry can overcome its persistent "circle of confusion" by embracing best practices in both subjective and objective testing. With a background spanning music, psychoacoustics, and product innovation, Olive has shaped the field of sound quality research for four decades. After early research in collaboration with Floyd Toole at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Olive joined Harman International in 1993, ultimately serving as senior fellow while leading groundbreaking work in loudspeakers, headphones, automotive audio and room acoustics. Since May 2025, he has worked as an independent consultant. A fellow and past president of the AES, Olive is also the author of more than 55 research papers, and co-author of Floyd Toole's forthcoming Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers, Rooms and Headphones (4th Edition) to be published in November 2025. Established in 1999 by the AES Technical Council and the Board of Governors, in conjunction with the Richard Heyser Scholarship fund, the Heyser Lecture series, featured at each AES Convention, brings eminent individuals in audio engineering and related fields to speak on a relevant topic of choice. The Heyser Lecture will be presented on Friday, October 24, at 6:00pm during AES Show 2025 in Long Beach. 
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