Shoebox-shaped concert halls naturally produce abundant lateral reflections

Evidence

However, it is not just the provision of diffusion on the side walls that must be considered. The traditional concert hall is called a shoebox hall, because of its shape, as shown in Figure 6.25, and this naturally provides a large number of lateral reflections to the audience. This shape, combined with the Victorian penchant for florid plaster decoration, resulted in some excellent sounding spaces. Unfortunately shoebox halls are harder to make a profit with because they cannot seat as many people as some other structures. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1969

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1969
• XREF: connects to: Fan-shaped halls discourage early side reflections and tend to fail acoustically; Fan-shaped halls sacrifice lateral reflections for seating capacity — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1970; Fan-shaped halls trade good sightlines for weak lateral reflections (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Fan-shaped halls trade good sightlines for weak lateral reflections #complicates (0.95)
• Ceiling reflections are as detectable as lateral ones despite weak binaural cues #expands (0.75) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 625