Even the father of acoustics could not predict a hall’s sound before completion.

Evidence

As the hall was completed, Sabine measured the reverberation time, and found that it deviated significantly from his predictions. He was distraught, and his colleagues caught him not long thereafter trying to burn his laboratory notebooks on the grass in front of Jefferson Physical Laboratory. When Symphony Hall opened, it briefly received good reviews for its acoustics, but very quickly the reviews turned sour. Some people blamed Sabine. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2574

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme in this book and elsewhere that acoustic prediction is incomplete.
• SEED: Angle: the gap between scientific prediction and perceived quality in acoustics, illustrated by Sabine’s near-book-burning.