Humans adapt to room acoustics through training over hundreds of trials

Evidence

It should not be concluded that listeners can always adapt to or normalize rooms to the extent shown here. As will be seen, there is always some adaptation, but in Experiment One it was enabled by the experimental method of comparing different loudspeakers within each room. Experiment Two is more closely related to real-life listening, in that the sounds of the room and the loudspeaker are combined. Listeners living in the room may develop enough familiarity with it to be able to discern some characteristics of loudspeakers being listened to, but having multiple comparison loudspeakers available is a very advantageous situation. The tests had the additional advantage of being in mono. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 547 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

In auditory perceptions, adaptation is at work, allowing us to “normalize” the acoustical environment within which we listen. Imagine a scenario in which you and a colleague are conversing while walking down the street (a “dead” space), you enter a building foyer (a large reverberant space), take the elevator (a tiny space), and walk down a corridor (a distinctive reverberant space) into an open-plan office (a relatively dead, semi-reflective space). While you are conversing, your colleague’s voice is a constant factor in spite of the enormous changes in the acoustical environment. It is the same voice in different acoustical spaces. The same is true of live musical performances in different venues. A Steinway is a Steinway, a Strad is a Strad, but in different rooms. The only relatively constant factor in all of this is the direct sound. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 810 (#expands, via linked claim)

This was one of the experiences leading me to recognize that humans have an ability to “listen through” rooms, to separate the sound of the source from the sound of the room. This ability seems to be degraded when the direct and reflected sounds have different timbral signatures. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1858 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Human hearing normalizes wildly different acoustic environments to a constant source — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 810; Room differences dominate loudspeaker differences when listeners cannot adapt — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 547; Deep Listening grows through repeated process training rather than one-time instruction. — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 98 (+1 more)

Related

• Listeners normalize room acoustics so a voice stays constant across radically different spaces (similarity 0.90)
• Room differences dominate loudspeaker differences when listeners cannot adapt (similarity 0.90)
• Listeners need some room sound but its required amount is unknown (similarity 0.89)
• Human listeners can identify loudspeaker qualities through rooms, while microphones cannot. (similarity 0.89)
• Humans can perceptually separate a sound source from its room. (similarity 0.88)
• Human hearing adapts to different room acoustics to preserve timbre perception (similarity 0.88)
• Listeners perceptually normalize familiar rooms to judge loudspeakers clearly (similarity 0.88)
• Human hearing normalizes wildly different acoustic environments to a constant source (similarity 0.87)
• Room acoustics and presentation method alter how listeners perceive sounds (similarity 0.87)
• Loudspeakers and rooms function together as a single audible system (similarity 0.87)
• Listeners can perceptually separate loudspeaker timbre from room coloration in comparisons (similarity 0.87)
• Room acoustics contaminate loudspeaker listening tests needing controlled environments (similarity 0.86)
• Human hearing adapts to speakers and rooms but the mechanism remains unknown (similarity 0.85)
• Perceptual listening-through-room ability has finite limits (similarity 0.84)
• Human auditory adaptation neutralizes room acoustics but not device imperfections (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Room differences dominate loudspeaker differences when listeners cannot adapt #qualifies (0.85) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 547
• Human hearing normalizes wildly different acoustic environments to a constant source #expands (0.80) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 810
• Humans can perceptually separate a sound source from its room. #expands (0.80) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1858
• Deep Listening grows through repeated process training rather than one-time instruction. #expands (0.75) — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 98