Study of the perception of warmth in concert halls and correlation with room acoustics metrics

Abstract

Challenges in concert hall acoustics research occur in bridging the domain between subjective attributes and objective metrics. Several studies have shown that the primary attributes associated with concert hall acoustic preference ratings are strength, clarity, and timbre. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation of warmth, which is closely associated with timbre, with the objective metric of bass ratio (BR), which is a measure of the ratio of acoustic information (such as reverberation time or strength) at low-frequencies to that at mid-frequencies. The stimuli for this study were simulated binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) obtained in ODEON and convolved with a concise orchestral anechoic motif. The BRIRs were simulated using models of five European halls. A model of the Vienna Musikverein with multiple absorption settings was also used to achieve different values of BR within a single hall geometry. The stimuli were presented to participants over headphones and they were asked to rate warmth, low- and high-frequency reverberance on continuous five-point scales. Participants rated each of the attributes in separate sets to avoid potential bias in the ratings. A repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted to examine the relationship between the subjective ratings and BR.