Binaural dissimilarity: Its importance and realization in room-acoustical design

Abstract

In numerous subjective evaluations of room responses, the importance of “binaural dissimilarity” for listener preference has been established. (Binaural dissimilarity is a measure of how different the two ear signals are; it is strongly enhanced by lateral reflections.) The subjective evaluations are based both on real halls [M. R. Schroeder, D. Gottlob, and K. F. Siebrasse, “Comparative Study of European Concert Halls,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 56, 1195–1201 (1974)], on digitally modified impulse responses of real halls [M. R. Schroeder, “Computer Models for Concert Hall Acoustics,” Am. J. Phys. 41, 461–471 (1973); U. Eysholdt and D. Gottlob, “Digital Synthesis of Sound Fields: A New Method to Study the Influence of Single Acoustical Parameters on Preference Judgements,” Proc. 9th Int. Congr. Acoust., Madrid (1977) p.4] and on simulated sound fields [Y. Ando, “Subjective Preference Tests of Simulated Sound Fields for Optimum Design of Concert Halls,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 63, 1, S85 (A) (1978)]. In this paper we review the subjective results and discuss their implications for room-acoustical design.