Small playback rooms impose their own early reflections on recorded sound

Evidence

The large changes in the level of reflected sound had only a modest (1 to 5 dB) effect on the absolute threshold or the image-shift threshold of an additional lateral reflection occurring within about 30 ms of the direct sound. At longer delays the thresholds were elevated by up to about 20 dB, a clear response to stronger late-reflected sounds in the increasingly live rooms. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 630 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Shared room acoustics let 1920 phonograph demos fool live audiences; Early room reflections benefit speech intelligibility as much as raised direct sound level — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 557; Larger recorded spaces perceptually dominate smaller playback spaces — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 695 (+14 more)

Related

• Room reverberation barely affects early reflection audibility but strongly elevates late-reflection thresholds (similarity 0.93)
• Removing conflicting reflections improves perception of low-level audio detail (similarity 0.92)
• Dense early reflections sum perceptually to sound livelier than energy measurements predict (similarity 0.92)
• A small listening room’s first reflections mask the recorded acoustic space (similarity 0.91)
• Reverberant fields supply most perceived loudness in normal rooms (similarity 0.90)
• Room boundary reflections are the second loudest sounds a listener hears (similarity 0.89)
• Room boundaries alter loudspeaker output through reflected image sources (similarity 0.88)
• Early wall reflections pin perceived sound space to room size (similarity 0.88)
• Early room reflections benefit speech intelligibility as much as raised direct sound level (similarity 0.88)
• Room acoustics requires modeling direct sound then early reflections (similarity 0.88)
• Multichannel and immersive audio reduce the perceptual importance of small-room reflections. (similarity 0.88)
• In small rooms RT target 0.2-0.5 s; early reflections dominate mid-high frequencies (similarity 0.88)
• Small listening rooms lack diffuse reverberation and contain only early reflections (similarity 0.88)
• Envelopment in small rooms must come from recordings rather than natural reflections (similarity 0.87)
• Early reflections must be suppressed about 15 dB to stay inaudible (similarity 0.87)

Broader Connections

• Room reverberation barely affects early reflection audibility but strongly elevates late-reflection thresholds #complicates (0.85) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 630
• Room boundaries alter loudspeaker output through reflected image sources #expands (0.75)