Preferred values for concert hall acoustic parameters for different musical styles based on subjective preference

In the study of concert hall acoustics, acoustical parameters have been proposed for the objective description of the acoustics of a performance venue. The purpose of the present study was to obtain preferred values for concert hall acoustic parameters for different musical styles. A subjective study was undertaken in which subjects had to rate a set of stimuli in terms of overall preference using a paired comparison rating technique. The stimuli were obtained through the convolution of seven spatial room impulse responses (SRIRs) from seven different halls, with three anechoic musical excerpts, which are representative of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic musical styles, respectively. Once the preference ratings were obtained, a rank ordering of the seven concert halls was determined for each musical style. The values of the acoustical parameters of the most preferred halls are proposed as recommended values for these measures. Preferred values are presented both for the parameters described in Annex A of the ISO 3382-1 standard, and for two new metrics proposed by the authors, which can predict perceived reverberance and musical clarity with increased accuracy from the octave-band values of early decay time (EDT) and clarity index (C80).