Room-Acoustical Fundamentals for Auditoriums and Concert Halls

The appreciation of performance spaces for music and speech is very much based on the subjective assessment of the acoustics by the visitors and by the performers themselves. The criteria according to which such an aesthetic judgement is made can be just as varied as the specific expectations of the acoustics of auditoria. Studies on the quality of concert halls, for example, have repeatedly shown that there are listeners who prefer a high degree of clarity and transparency, while other listeners prefer a pronounced spatiality and a more diffuse sound. In general, a performance space should be free of disturbing effects such as echoes or flutter echoes. There should be no localization shift or discrepancy between the acoustic and visual sense of direction. Timbre changes that deviate from the expected “natural” timbre of the acoustic sources and from the usual distance dependence are also to be avoided. Today, more than in the past, care is taken to ensure that all seats in the hall have a good line of sight to the stage and provide good listening conditions, with a good balance between acoustical clarity and spaciousness. A prerequisite for optimum room acoustic design of auditoriums and concert halls is very early coordination in the design phase. To ensure the suitability of the design and the effectiveness of room acoustic interventions, simulation methods are used, both with numerical models in computer simulations and physical scale models.