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Re: Ultimate realization of this technology

Hi Tom, thanks for your response

Here are my comments;

"As the size of a room increases (all other things being the same) so does the difficulty in producing intelligibility at a distance.
The ratio of direct to reflected sound correlates to intelligibility of voices."

I think you are oversimplifying things a lot. Intelligibility not only depends on RT and the ratio of direct to reflected sound, it also depends on the exact nature, that is the arrivial times, directions of incidence, and spatial distribution of echoes. As proof I offer the example of the well known phenomenon in the Capitol under the dome where two people at considerable distance in a noisy environment can hear each other clearly even speaking very softly. Designers of concert halls often have to sacrifice intelligibility for other more desirable acoustic properties which enhance musical enjoyment such as tone and uniformity of sound throughout the hall. When intelligibility is required such as in an opera house, they usually try to reduce RT. Ideal for a concert hall at mid frequencies is 1.8 to 2.0 and for an opera house 1.4 to 1.6 (according to Leo Beranek.) Small recital halls and lecture halls are even lower probably around 1.0. OTOH, the best place to hear a pipe organ and a large chorus is in a cathedral where unamplified speech has very poor intelligibility and RT can run 4.5 to 5.0. The problem of increasing intelligibility in a large places of public assembly whether a gymnasium, theater, railroad and airport waiting rooms where RT may be excessive is best solved by scientific applications of acoustic principles using constant directivity loudspeakers, electronic time delays, and equalization. This has left the realm of art and has largely become an exact science with good correlation between predictions of computer program simulations and actual field installations as you undoubtedly know. Excellent intelligibility is possible in even the most difficult situations, it's merely a matter of cost.

The problem of reproducing the sound of musical instruments accurately in a home listening environment from recordings is entirely different. First of all, the environments vary drastically and while the professional installation in places of public assembly are custom engineered and adjusted for each individual case, home installations are for the most part not engineered at all, they are assembled haphazardly with many of them having few or no provisions for adjustment other than speaker placement and even that is usually restricted due to other considerations such as decor. The role the acoustics in the home plays therefore is usually beyond control or mitigation of the user. With no provisions for adjustments to customize the installation and no standards for recordings themselves, most recordings played through most home sound systems regardless of price or equipment used do not generally sound like live musical performances to even mildly interested listeners. They should have no trouble determining blindfolded rather quickly that they are listening to a mechanical facsimile of music and not actual musicians. Listen to a piano in a large heavily carpeted sales showroom where there are few acoustic reflections and listen to the same or a similar piano in someone's home. In the home setting where there are lots of reflections, the sound may be slightly less clear but the reflections alter the tone drastically far more than compensating for it. Now listen to a recording of a piano in the same room. I don't think most people would have a problem knowing that they are not hearing a real piano. Apparantly among speaker designers, there is considerable disagreement as to why. While I am a hobbyist and tinkerer I have a technical background and you know my views.

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