Standardized reference listening rooms let psychoacoustic test results generalize to ordinary domestic settings.

Evidence

The first type of critical listening room is the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) listening room (IEC, 2003). This is essentially a conventional room that meets certain minimum requirements: a reverberation time that is flat and between 0.3 and 0.6 seconds above 200 Hz, a low noise level, an even mode distribution and a recommended floor area. In essence, this is a standardized living room that provides a consistent reference environment for a variety of listening tasks. It is the type of room that is often used for psychoacoustic testing, as it provides results that correlate well with that which is experienced in conventional domestic environments. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2267

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the IEC listening room and its specifying parameters (reverb time, noise level, mode distribution).
• SEED: An essay angle on why psychoacoustics needed a standardized room to make listening experiments comparable across labs.
• SHARE: The 0.3-to-0.6-second flat reverb spec is a nerdy detail only an audio-measurement person would relish.