Loudspeakers and rooms function together as a single audible system

Evidence

The experience of this room is that one is unaware of sound reflection from the walls: it sounds almost anechoic, yet it has reverberation! Stereo and multi-channel material played in this room has images that are stable over a wide listening area. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1432 (#expands, via linked claim)

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 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Shared room acoustics let 1920 phonograph demos fool live audiences; Passive devices and even walls can amplify sound without power; Room acoustics contaminate loudspeaker listening tests needing controlled environments (+19 more)

Broader Connections

• Room acoustics act as another system modifying the instrument’s output #corroborates (0.90)
• A room can sound anechoic and reverberant simultaneously #expands (0.85) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1432
• Room differences dominate loudspeaker differences when listeners cannot adapt #expands (0.85) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 547
• Listeners perceptually normalize familiar rooms to judge loudspeakers clearly #expands (0.85) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1098
• Room boundaries alter loudspeaker output through reflected image sources #expands (0.85)
• Auditory streaming explains how listeners separate loudspeaker from room sound #expands (0.82)
• Listeners normalize room acoustics so a voice stays constant across radically different spaces #expands (0.80)
• Direct sound governs perceived quality in rooms, not room curves #expands (0.80)
• Flat-response speakers unavoidably produce a bass-heavy steady-state room sound #expands (0.80) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1216
• Room absorption determines the steady-state level of reverberant sound #expands (0.75) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1781