The subjective and objective evaluation of three buildings for music

Subjective responses and physical acoustic measurements were collected in three rooms: University auditorium and the band rehearsal room at the Univ. of Florida, and Naples Philharmonic Hall in Naples, Florida. An evaluation sheet comprised of nine criteria—clarity, intimacy, envelopment, balance, reverberance, loudness, overall impression, background noise, and echoes—was utilized to gather the subjective data. Objective data were collected by recording pistol shots in each of the rooms and calculating the following parameters from the impulse responses: reflectograms, early-to-late and early-to-total temporal energy ratios, center time (TS), early reverberation time (R1), early decay time (EDT), initial time delay gap (ITDG), and bass ratio (BRRT). Significant intercorrelations were identified between several of the subjective criteria evaluated and also between several of the objective parameters measured. Independent subjective qualities significantly correlated with overall acoustic impression, objective measurements, and physical room characteristics, as well.