Chamber music hall acoustics: Measurements and perceptual differences

This study investigates the room acoustics of seven chamber music halls of various modern and historical architecture by means of objective room acoustic measures and a subjective listening experiment. The acoustic measurements were performed with heavy cloth covering the audience areas to simulate occupancy in the halls. A loudspeaker quartet was used for auralizations, which were reproduced in a surrounding loudspeaker array. The perceptual differences between the halls were evaluated in terms of envelopment, warmth, clarity, proximity, and preference by using a paired comparison paradigm. The subjective evaluations were conducted in two different laboratories and latent class analysis was used to study the agreement between laboratories and the emergence of different listener groups in the ratings of each attribute. Concerning preference, the emergence of two groups found in the study of large symphony halls was confirmed, where one group prefers rich, enveloping sound and one group prefers high clarity. The perceptual ratings were not clearly associated with a specific hall shape, but rather depended on the distribution of early and late sound energy. Thus, the distinction between rectangular and non-rectangular floor plans previously found for large symphony halls was not observed with these smaller halls.