Reverberant sound level rises as room size shrinks while decay time shortens

Evidence

An interesting result from Equation 6.6 is that it appears that the level of the reverberant field depends only on the total absorbing surface area. In other words, it is independent of the volume of the room. However, in practice the surface area and volume are related because one encloses the other. In fact, because the surface area in a room becomes less as its volume decreases, the reverberant sound level becomes higher for a given average absorption coefficient in smaller rooms, although the reverberation time in the smaller room will always be shorter. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1767

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s earlier treatment of Sabine reverberation time equations, which the reader has already covered in prior chapters.