Perception of reverberation time in small listening rooms

Niaounakis, TI; Davies, WJ

Abstract

The perceptibility of small changes in reverberation time (RT) when music is reproduced within small studio control rooms was judged by a number of subjects. The aim of the study was to determine the difference limen (DL) for midfrequency RTs shorter than 0.6 s, which are usually encountered in such rooms. The work used a real control room and consisted of two experiments. In the first experiment the DL for RT was measured by changing the amount of absorption in the room. Here the measurement stimulus (music) was reproduced to the subjects by one loudspeaker located in the center in front of the mixing console. In the second experiment the measurement stimuli were recorded in the control room using a dummy head and later replayed to the subjects by headphones. Differences between the two measurements were compared and the overall DL was found to be 0.042 +/- 0.015 s.

Citation

Niaounakis, T., & Davies, W. (2002). Perception of reverberation time in small listening rooms. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 50(5), 343-350

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: May 1, 2002
• Deposit Date: Jul 13, 2012
• Journal: Journal of the Audio Engineering Society
• Print ISSN: 1549-4950
• Publisher: Audio Engineering Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 343-350
• Keywords: difference limen
• Publisher URL: http://www.aes.org/e-lib/inst/download.cfm/11080.pdf?ID=11080
• Related Public URLs: http://www.acoustics.salford.ac.uk/profiles/davies/; http://www.aes.org/