Spatial audio reproduction of floor impact-borne sounds for auditory demonstrations in living environment

Abstract

Floor impact-borne sound in the multistory residential buildings has been a serious social issue in Korea for a long time. The housing and land authority in a ministry of Korea recently amended the floor impact-borne sound evaluation method and criteria in response to the acoustic characteristics of the actual impact sources perceived in our daily lives. However, many people have not yet been convinced by the effectiveness of those evaluation method and criteria. This study discusses spatial audito reproduction of the various floor impact-borne sounds for auditory demonstrations to increase the laypersons’ understanding of the acoustic features of impact sources. The impact-borne sounds generated both by the standard impact sources used in evaluation and by some actual ones were recorded at a test-bed built in a typical apartment type. Their sound levels and reverberation times were also obtained across 1/3rd octave bands for reference. A multi-channel audio playback system engaging front/rear/ceiling speakers with subwoofers was integrated in a test-bed with a typical setting of living environment to reproduce a realistic sound field. It was optimized to create the sounds close to those actually heard in the room. The impact-borne sounds of the different damping floor systems will also be presented.