In normal home listening the reverberant field dominates direct sound from speakers

Evidence

As most people would be about 2 m away from their loudspeakers when they are listening to them, this means that in a normal domestic setting, the reverberant field is the most dominant source of sound energy from the hi-fi and not the direct sound. Therefore the quality of the reverberant field is an important aspect of the performance of any system that reproduces recorded music in the home. In addition, it also has an effect on speech intelligibility in reverberant spaces, as the direct sound is the major component of the sound that provides this. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1792

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the soundscape books in the reader’s library on how listening environment conditions perception; and to design of listening spaces vs. living rooms. — connects to: In domestic listening rooms the reverberant field dominates the direct sound. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1834