Anechoic chambers misrepresent how loudspeakers sound in normal rooms

Evidence

If a very carefully controlled free field (anechoic chamber) is not needed, conducting experiments in a specially designed listening test room that resembles a living room with good acoustics may be better. As an example, conducting listening tests in an anechoic space when studying audio quality would give misleading results, since the reverberant field in normal rooms immensely affects the listening experience. Loudspeakers are meant to be used in normal rooms, and the response obtained in an anechoic chamber can be very different from the response in a normal room (Bech and Zacharov, 2006). — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 872

It is important to pay enough attention to the acoustic environment of psychoacoustic experiments. If a very carefully controlled free field (anechoic chamber) is not needed, conducting experiments in a specially designed listening test room that resembles a living room with good acoustics may be better. As an example, conducting listening tests in an anechoic space when studying audio quality would give misleading results, since the reverberant field in normal rooms immensely affects the listening experience. Loudspeakers are meant to be used in normal rooms, and the response obtained in an anechoic chamber can be very different from the response in a normal room (Bech and Zacharov, 2006). — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 872

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to audio engineering practice where room acoustics and speaker response are inseparable; relates to the Soundscape book in this library on room/ambient acoustics. — connects to: Loudspeakers and rooms function together as a single audible system; Changing room geometry barely alters loudspeaker quality rankings; Room differences dominate loudspeaker differences when listeners cannot adapt — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 547 (+3 more)
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 872

Broader Connections

• Changing room geometry barely alters loudspeaker quality rankings #corroborates (0.85)
• Loudspeakers and rooms function together as a single audible system #expands (0.82)
• Room differences dominate loudspeaker differences when listeners cannot adapt #corroborates (0.80) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 547
• Non-environment rooms suppress all but direct sound for clearer audio detail and imaging #qualifies (0.75)