ASA 125th Meeting Ottawa 1993 May

2aAA9. Pilot study of simulated spaciousness.

John S. Bradley

M-27, IRC, Natl. Res. Council, Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6, Canada

G. A. Soulodre

McGill University, Montreal, PQ H3A 1E3, Canada

N. Popplewell

Univ. of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MN R3T 2N2, Canada

Spaciousness is said to include the sense that the sound in a concert hall is enveloping, that the apparent source width is increased, and the general feeling of being in a room or space. Strong early lateral reflections are generally accepted as essential for adequate spaciousness. The influence of other factors such as the level and the spectrum of the sound is not so well understood. This paper reports the results of initial subjective evaluations of simulated sound fields with varied early lateral reflections. Using paired comparison tests, judgments of the apparent source width were found to be well correlated with two types of objective measures (LF and IACC). As reported in earlier studies, louder sounds were judged to be more spacious and lower frequencies also led to greater apparent source width. [Work partially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.]