An objective measure for the sensitivity of the room impulse response

Abstract

This study is relevant for a number of important acoustic measurements in reverberation rooms such as measurement of sound transmission and measurement of sound power levels of noise sources. From a pair of impulse responses measured in a room differing only in the position of the sound source, it might be possible to quantify the sensitivity of the room due to changes in initial conditions. Such changes are linked to mixing. The proposed measure is the maximum of the absolute value of the cross-correlation between the time windowed sections of the two impulse responses. By integrating this quantity normalized by the energy of the impulse response of the room, a single number rating is obtained. The proposed measure is examined experimentally, and the results are discussed. The results indicate that the number of absorbers and diffusers in the room influences the proposed measures systematically.