Basic study on discrimination between sound fields of architectural spaces

Abstract

Many objective criteria by attenuation property of room acoustic energy have been suggested, and relationships with subjective attributes have been elucidated. The difference of synthetic subjective impression between sound fields could be discriminated by acoustical parameters, i.e., objective criteria above, but details of mechanism in discrimination among different sound fields, weightings or ground of judgment, etc. have not been clarified. The purpose of this study is to clarify the discrimination factor over difference between sound fields. In this report, subjective experiments are carried out by using impulse response data of existing ten concert halls and music data, made from convolution of impulse responses and dry sources, as stimuli. In these experiments, subjects are asked to evaluate the impression of each stimulus, and to judge the difference among stimuli in pared comparison. The results of these experiments are analyzed and it seems that the factor related to the difference of Reverberance is dominant in discrimination by factor analysis, but there are some cases in which Loudness or Clarity is dominant. The weightings of factors, the boundary to switch judgment between factors, etc. will be discussed.