Assessment of Sound Field in a Car

This paper describes the measurement and assessment method for sound field in a car cabin, which is so small that conventional room acoustical parameters cannot be employed directly. Firstly, we measured the sound field using multi-channel microphone system and calculated some room acoustical parameters for judging their validity in the car cabin. As a result, we could conclude that many of the conventional parameters do not have useful meaning in a car and its audio system. By analyzing the impulse responses from many cars, we could develop some parameters for more profound assessment of the sound field in a car.