The ideal room ratio dogma originated from industrial reverberation chambers, not listening rooms

Evidence

What is not well known is that the serious deliberations leading to these recommendations had to do with reverberation chambers for the purpose of measuring the sound power output of noisy mechanical devices. … Nevertheless, these concepts migrated into the audio field, and certain room dimensional ratios have been promoted as having especially desirable characteristics for listening. In normal rooms, the benefits apply only to low frequencies. Bolt (1946) makes this clear in the rarely seen “range of validity” graph that accompanies his “blob,” Figure 8.5. This shows that, in an 85 m3 (3,000 ft3) room, the optimum ratios are effective from about 40 to 120 Hz. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 900

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme of audiophile folklore vs. engineering science, and to the chapter’s thread about the ‘circle of confusion’. — connects to: Dimensionally symmetrical rooms are acoustically asymmetrical due to construction details — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 631; Statistical acoustics and classical critical distance do not apply in small rooms — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1312; Bolt’s room-ratio studies targeted reverberation chambers, not listening rooms — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1542 (+2 more)
• SEED: Could seed an essay on how engineering dogma migrates out of its original domain: industrial chamber standards adopted wholesale by audiophiles as ideal listening-room ratios.