Bass rises in reflected room sound for all forward-firing loudspeakers

Evidence

Whatever the shape of the spectrum of the direct sound from musical instruments, or loudspeakers reproducing recordings of those musical instruments, the steady-state sound in a normal room will exhibit a version of that spectrum that rises at lower frequencies. Highly reflective concert halls attempt to preserve the limited sound output of musical instruments and voices in reflections, delivering as much of it as possible to listeners, while not masking temporal details in the music, and still creating a pleasant sense of envelopment. It is a difficult acoustical balancing act. Sound reproduction spaces are much less reflective: the principal cues to space and envelopment are in the multichannel recordings, and a volume control changes loudness at will. Loudspeakers designed with flat on-axis frequency responses, so as to accurately reproduce the initial timbral signature of the recorded sounds, will therefore exhibit a rising sound power output at lower frequencies. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1216 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Flat on-axis speakers naturally produce rising bass power and downward-tilted room curves.; Room pressurization creates a compliant bass boost below the first axial mode; Flat-response speakers unavoidably produce a bass-heavy steady-state room sound — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1216 (+1 more)

Related

• Flat on-axis speakers naturally produce rising bass power and downward-tilted room curves. (similarity 0.96)
• Room reverberant fields typically rise in bass, necessitating bandwidth-matched equalizer cuts for distant miking (similarity 0.93)
• Flat-response speakers unavoidably produce a bass-heavy steady-state room sound (similarity 0.91)
• Room pressurization creates a compliant bass boost below the first axial mode (similarity 0.91)
• Bass rise in reflected sound is physically unavoidable with forward-firing speakers. (similarity 0.90)
• Room reflectivity at low frequencies determines bass elevation in measured steady-state curves (similarity 0.88)
• Gently rising bass response is both natural and preferred in loudspeakers (similarity 0.87)
• Room resonance excess masks loudspeaker bass deficiency to listeners (similarity 0.85)
• Resonances are the primary problem in loudspeakers (similarity 0.84)
• Equalizing for a flat in-room response requires adding a high-frequency boost. (similarity 0.83)
• Small playback rooms impose their own early reflections on recorded sound (similarity 0.82)
• Loudspeaker quality depends on off-axis radiation because rooms reflect it (similarity 0.82)
• The listening room, not the loudspeaker, determines perceived bass quality. (similarity 0.82)
• Reverberant fields supply most perceived loudness in normal rooms (similarity 0.82)
• Most loudspeakers need equalization to correct low-frequency room resonances (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Room reverberant fields typically rise in bass, necessitating bandwidth-matched equalizer cuts for distant miking #expands (0.90)
• Flat-response speakers unavoidably produce a bass-heavy steady-state room sound #corroborates (0.85) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1216