The components of spatial impression in concert halls

Authors

  • G.A. Soulodre McGill Univ., Montreal, Que., Canada
  • J.S. Bradley

Keywords:

architectural acoustics, sound fields, early lateral energy, informal listening tests, listener envelopment, reverberant energy, spatial impression, apparent source width

Abstract

Spatial impression is usually loosely described as the sense of being enveloped by the sound or as an increase in the apparent width of the source. In a previous study by the authors (1993), the findings of Barron (1971) and Keet (1968) were verified in experiments using sound fields consisting of a direct sound and a few early reflections. The results confirmed that the apparent width of the source increases with increasing early lateral energy. It was also found however that although a broadening of the source was evident for these simple sound fields, listeners never felt enveloped (surrounded) by the sound. In a series of informal listening tests, it was found that a sense of listener envelopment could be obtained by including late arriving or reverberant energy in the sound fields. Furthermore, the addition of reverberant energy was found to reduce the listener's ability to discriminate the effects of early lateral energy. Several subjective experiments were conducted to explore these issues. The results indicate that spatial impression has two distinct components: apparent source width (ASW) and listener envelopment(LE)

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Published

1994-09-01

How to Cite

1.
Soulodre G, Bradley J. The components of spatial impression in concert halls. Canadian Acoustics [Internet]. 1994 Sep. 1 [cited 2023 Sep. 29];22(3):51-2. Available from: https://jcaa.caa-aca.ca/index.php/jcaa/article/view/845

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 3 (1994)

Section

Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada

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