Room size and source directivity alone determine where direct sound gives way to reverberation.

Evidence

Equation 6.11 shows that only the room constant and the directivity of the sound source determine the critical distance. Because the room constant is a function of the surface area of the room, the critical distance will tend to increase with larger rooms. However, many of us listen to music in our living rooms, so let us calculate the critical distance for a hi-fi loudspeaker in a living room. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1791

Categorization

• QUESTION: Could our own living room’s dimensions and speaker placement make a concrete critical-distance number worth working out?