The effect of reverberation enhancement on the diffusion of the sound field

Abstract

Reverberation enhancement is a technology which allows the reverberation time of a room to be increased. It is important to consider the effect of this technology on the other measurable attributes of the room response. The spatial variation of steady state sound pressure level and reverberation time within the room can be used to measure the extent to which the room approximates a diffuse field. A theoretical value of these quantities can be predicted for an ideal diffuse field, and the ratio between the measured and theoretical values gives a normalized measure of the diffusion of the sound field. This work investigates the changes in these measures when reverberation enhancement is applied to a room. Experimental results have shown that the normalized measures of diffusion increase with the introduction of reverberation enhancement. This implies a reduction in the homogeneity and isotropy of the sound field which may be perceived as a reduction in subjective quality.