Reverberant field dominates home hi-fi listening from just 2 meters away

Evidence

Clearly the level of the reverberant field is strongly affected by the level of average absorption. The first example would be typical of an extremely “dead” acoustic environment, as found in some studios, whereas the second is typical of an average living room. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1776 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

If a steady tone, such as an organ note, is played in the space then after a period of time the reverberant sound will reach a constant level because at that point the sound power input balances the power lost by absorption in the space. This means that the steady-state level will be higher in rooms that have a small amount of absorption, compared with rooms that have a lot of absorption. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1781 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Domestic hi-fi listening is dominated by reverberant rather than direct sound; Reverberant fields supply most perceived loudness in normal rooms — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1776; A critical distance exists where reverberant sound begins to dominate the direct field (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• A critical distance exists where reverberant sound begins to dominate the direct field #expands (0.88)
• Reverberant fields supply most perceived loudness in normal rooms #corroborates (0.82) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1776
• Smaller rooms produce louder reverberant fields but shorter reverberation times #expands (0.75) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1806
• Room absorption determines the steady-state level of reverberant sound #expands (0.75) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1781
• Reverberant rooms make loudspeaker directivity important for sound quality #corroborates (0.74) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 474
• Concentrating loudspeakers at one point yields the best direct-to-reverberant ratio for a space #corroborates (0.72)
• Higher absorption reduces the first-reflection energy that feeds the reverberant field #expands (0.72) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1763
• Reflected sound fields dominate at low frequencies for almost all sources #corroborates (0.72) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1213