Abstract
The acoustics of small rooms have been studied with emphasis on sound quality, boominess, and boxiness when the rooms are used for speech or music. Seven rooms with very different characteristics were used for the study. Subjective listening tests were made using binaural recordings of studio-produced music and anechoic speech. The test results were compared with a large number of objective acoustic parameters based on the frequency-dependent reverberation times (RT) measured in the rooms. This has led to the proposal of three new acoustic parameters, which have shown high correlation with the subjective ratings. The classical bass ratio definitions showed poor correlation with all subjective ratings. The overall sound quality ratings gave different results for speech and music. For speech the preferred mean RT should be as low as possible, whereas for music a preferred range of between 0.3 and 0.5 s was found.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 495-511 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | AES: Journal of the Audio Engineering Society |
Volume | 54 |
Issue number | 6 |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2006 |
Externally published | Yes |