System Adaptation, Symposium on Wire Transmission of Symphonic Music and Its Reproduction in Auditory Perspective

H E N the effect of music or the intelligibility of speech is spoiled by bad acoustics in an auditorium, the audience is well aware t h a t acoustics do play a most important part in the appreciation of the program. One may not be conscious of this fact when the acoustical conditions are good, but a simple illustration will show t h a t the effect still is present. Thus, of the sound energy reaching a member of the audience as much as 90 per cent may have been reflected one or more times from the various surfaces of the room, and only 10 per cent received directly from the source of the sound. In listening to reproduced sound in an auditorium or concert hall, the effect of the room acoustics is perhaps even more important, for in this case the audience does not see any one on the stage and must rely entirely upon the auditory effect to create the illusion of the presence there of an individual or a group. Imperfections in the reproduced sound t h a t are caused by defects in the acoustics of the auditorium may destroy the illusion and be ascribed improperly to the reproducing system itself. In some types of reproduced sound, radio broadcast for example, where the reproduction normally takes place in a small room, the attempt is made to create the illusion t h a t the listener is present at the source. 1 - 2 In the case considered here, however, where symphonic music is reproduced in a large auditorium, the ideal is to create the illusion t h a t the orchestra is present in the auditorium with the audience.