Comment on ‘‘Predicting theater chair absorption from reverberation chamber measurements’’ [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 91 , 1514–1524 (1992)]

The relationship between the measured acoustic absorption coefficient of an array of theater chairs and the ratio of the perimeter length to plan area of the array is considered. It is shown that the linear relationship measured by Bradley in a reverberation chamber and reported in ‘‘Predicting theater chair absorption from reverberation chamber measurements’’ [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 91, 1514–1524 (1992)] is to be expected from simple theory. This means that any nonlinear influence of diffracted energy on the relationship is small. Bradley is also unduly harsh on the usefulness of a chair absorption measurement method involving screens. A sample result is given, showing that this method can predict in-situ theater chair absorption with reasonable accuracy.