Room acoustics and listening

Abstract

The physical basis for sound propagation in rooms may be described by a time‐domain model of reflection from the walls. Reflections arriving soon after direct source‐to‐listener transmission produce a perception of spectral “coloration” while later arrivals contribute “echo.” Directional perception and listener preference for rooms are heavily influenced by such underlying phenomena. These perceptual effects can be quantified and directly related to their physical bases through use of psychophysical testing and interpretation methods, such as multidimensional scaling, combined with computer techniques for creating and modifying sound fields measured in actual or synthetic enclosures. Examples of such approaches, including diotic/dichotic image models of small rooms, modification of concert‐hall transfer functions, and manipulation of responses measured directly in the ear‐canal of listeners, are used ot illustrate the current state of the art.