Objective evaluation of chamber-music halls in Europe and Japan

The room acoustical parameters reverberation time, RT; early decay time, EDT; clarity, C80; time gravity, Tg; bass ratio, BR; strength, G; initial time delay gap, ITDG; interaural cross-correlation coefficient, IACC(E), the where binaural quality index BQI equals 1-IACC(E3)]; and stage support, ST1 were measured in 18 major chamber-music halls in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Japan, employing procedures in accordance with ISO 3382 (1997). In combination with the architectural data, the intrinsic objective parameters for the acoustics of chamber-music halls and their variation range were examined. The results of these studies reveal four pertinent orthogonal parameters: RT, G, ITDG, BQI. General design guidelines for a chamber-music hall are presented.