Raumakustikin Heimkinos

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Room Acoustics in Home Theaters
Thesis · February 2014

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2483.2080
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Graz University of Technology
Room Acoustics
in
Home Theaters
Toningenieursprojekt
by
Thomas Zechner
Matrikelnr.: 0573119
Technical University of Graz

Signal Processing and Speech Communication Lab
Head: Univ.- Prof. DI. Dr. Gernot Kubin

Advisor: DI. Dr. Franz Graf
STATUTORY DECLARATION
I declare that I have authored this thesis independently, that I have not used other than
the declared sources / resources, and that I have explicitly marked all material which
has been quoted either literally or by content from the used sources.
Graz,
Date Signature
Project Report I SPSC Lab

Abstract
In this work, a state of the art home theater with respect to current recommendations
for the room layout as well as for the arrangement of a multiple loudspeaker surround
sound reproduction system was designed. Home theaters are domestic listening rooms,
and therefore room acoustics of small rooms has to be considered in order to be able to
explain the acoustics in such enclosures. In small rooms, loudspeakers are interacting
with the adjacent room boundaries and care has to be taken in terms of loudspeaker
placement and their influence on the creation of room modes. Those are resonances
or standing waves that create a distribution pattern that is pressure peaks and nulls
dependent on the location within the room. This results in excessive levels at the pressure
peaks or complete attenuation at specific frequencies. This has a negative effect on the
perceived sound especially if the home theater offers several seating locations. The so
called seat-to-seat variations are desired to be at minimum among the entire listening
area. Interference effects occur for the whole spectrum, however, this will not be an
issue that has to be addressed over the entire frequency range as will be discussed in this
work. State of the art room mode attenuation schemes and acoustical improvements by
means of passive and active absorption will be discussed and applied in a home theater
design example. The acoustic simulation program CATT-Acoustic was used to discuss
the acoustical design including a seven channel surround sound system with respect to
recommendations and standards for surround sound reproduction in listening rooms.
Project Report II SPSC Lab

Contents
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 General Theoretical Considerations of Acoustics and Perception of Sound

in Rooms 3
2.1 Room Acoustic Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Time Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2.1 Reverberation Time [T] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2.2 Early Decay Time [EDT] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2.3 Center Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3 Energy Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3.1 Clarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.4 Spaciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.4.1 Apparent Source Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.4.2 Listeners Envelopment [LEV] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.4.3 Lateral Energy Fraction [LEF] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.4.4 Interaural Cross-Correlation Coefficient [IACC] . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.4.5 Speech Intelligibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.5 Directivity Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.6 Acoustics in Domestic Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.6.1 Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.6.2 Loudspeakers and Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.6.3 Loudspeaker Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.7 Perceptive Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.8 Spatial Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.9 Acoustical Interferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.10 General Considerations about Room Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3 Improving Room Acoustics 20

3.1 Improving Room Acoustics through Passive Acoustic Treatment . . . . . 20
3.1.1 Passive Absorption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.1.2 Porous Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.1.3 Panel Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1.4 Resonance Absorber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1.5 Perforated Panel Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.1.6 Slat Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.1.7 Bass Traps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2 Acoustical Diffusers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3 Home Furnishing as Sound Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3.1 Curtains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3.2 Carpets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.4 Improving Room Acoustics through Active Absorption . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.4.1 Appropriate Subwoofer Arrangements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Project Report III SPSC Lab

Contents
3.4.2 Active Absorption-Reverse Sound Reproduction . . . . . . . . . . 30

3.4.3 Virtual Bass Room Mode Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.4.4 Equalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.4.5 Subwoofer Placement Combined with Signal Processing . . . . . . 32
3.5 Acoustic Decoupling of a Home Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4 Surround Sound Reproduction 38

4.1 Using the Right Loudspeakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.1.1 Front Loudspeakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.1.2 Center channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2 Surround Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2.1 Dipole Loudspeakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2.2 Subwoofer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2.3 Bass Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.3 Loudspeaker Arrangements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.4 Channel Numbering in Sound Reproduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.5 ITU-R BS.775-3 Surround Sound Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
5 Practical Example of Planning a Home Cinema 47

5.1 Optimum Room Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5.2 Optimum Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5.3 Optimum Viewing Angles and Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5.4 Optimum Listening Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.5 Subwoofer Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.6 Room Optimizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.6.1 Theory Behind the Room Optimizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5.7 Acoustically Transparent Projection Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5.8 Home Theater Design Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.8.1 Absorption Design Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.8.2 Room Mode Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.8.3 Listening Distance and Viewing Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.8.4 Loudspeaker Arrangement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.8.5 Surface Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.9 Home Theater Design Simulation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.9.1 Acoustically Designed Home Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.10 Optimum Subwoofer Arrangement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6 Conclusions 79
7 References 80
Project Report IV SPSC Lab

1 INTRODUCTION
1 Introduction
A home theater can be applied easily to domestic living rooms at the present day. State-
of-the-art acoustical improvements allow for active acoustic control regardless of room
shapes or room dimensions. This provides good sound quality for almost any listening
location for a wide listening area. The signal processing for this acoustic control is com-
monly included in modern surround processors. A surround processors will assist in all
the necessary steps to allow for acoustic optimization. This includes the measurements
at each listening location, in order to calculate the loudspeaker-listener transfer func-
tion, and based on that generates the optimum parameters for each signal delivered to
each loudspeaker. In this case the only room acoustic requirement for a domestic room
is to start with a low reverberation time in order to provide good speech intelligibility.
This cannot be created by the surround processor or any optimization system. However,
good values for the reverberation time will most likely be achieved by common home
furnishing. Home furnishing also provides sound diffusion and may assists in creating
spaciousness. Furthermore, it results in a smoother frequency response due to a more
uniform sound field with good possibilities to fill the frequency dips caused by inter-
ference effects. This are good news and with some more consideration regarding the
loudspeaker-room interactions one can achieve good results for recreational listening in
a home theater.
1.1 Motivation
State of the art approaches in terms of room acoustic design and passive as well as
active acoustic control was desired to apply to the design of a modern home theater.
This also includes up-to-date recommendations and standards for the layout of a home
theater. The new findings were discussed and conclusions are drawn by the elaboration
of a home theater design example by means of acoustic simulation results. There are
less results of research about domestic listening rooms compared to professional listening
rooms. Therefore, there are no overall acoustic standards due to a lack of experience of
the acoustic in such small enclosures. The acoustics in small rooms differs greatly and
acoustic research of large rooms cannot be applied to small domestic rooms. This is due
to the modal density which results from the spacing between each room resonance. The
spacing will be larger for smaller rooms, thus, the frequency response will have larger
undulations at the low frequencies and therefore will result in decreased sound quality
dependent on the listening position. However, the mode spacing gets smaller at higher
frequencies resulting in a smother room response. This theoretical considerations lead
to the objectives which are given in the following.
1.2 Objective
The objective of this work was to give an overview of the latest findings and to design
an entertainment room which can be applied to the dimensions of domestic rooms. The
home theater design example enables recreational listening for a family-sized listening
area. Thus, a reasonable reverberation time regarding speech intelligibility is required
Project Report 1 SPSC Lab

1 INTRODUCTION
as well as little seat-to-seat variations to provide similar sound quality independent from
the seating location. A proper sized projection screen which allows for good viewing
angles will be taken into account for a HDTV screen. Optimum loudspeaker positions
and more specifically, optimum subwoofer arrangements will be discussed in order to
provide room mode cancellation and hence provide a smooth frequency response in the
low frequencies where room modes are an issue in small rooms. A surround system will
be aligned with respect to the current recommendations in ITU-R BS.775-3 for surround
sound reproduction.
1.3 Overview
Section two will start with theoretical consideration of objective and subjective param-
eters for sound reproduction in rooms. Then methods for acoustic improvements such
as passive and active acoustic solutions are discussed and partially applied in the home
theater design example in section five. Section four gives an overview of the surround
sound reproduction system and possible loudspeaker arrangements to ensure recreational
listening and the creation of spaciousness which is the feeling being surrounded by the
sound field. The last section gives a design example for a home theater with respect
to the requirements which were discussed in the previous sections. The design will be
discussed by means of acoustic simulation results.

2 GENERAL THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF ACOUSTICS AND
PERCEPTION OF SOUND IN ROOMS
2 General Theoretical Considerations of Acoustics

and Perception of Sound in Rooms
2.1 Room Acoustic Parameters
A room can be considered as an acoustical linear and time-invariant system. Therefore,

an impulse response in the time domain, which determines the decay, gives you a com-
plete description of a room. Various acoustical parameters are based on the impulse
response of a room and address the relative energy content in given time intervals which
will be shortly discussed.
2.2 Time Criteria
2.2.1 Reverberation Time [T]
The reverberation time RT is defined as the time in seconds required for the sound level
in a room to decrease by 60 dB from its original level after a continuous sound source has
been turned off. This will be a change of one thousand or one million in sound pressure
and sound intensity respectively. This measurement refers to T60 but in practice smaller
time intervals such as -5 to -35 dB T30 or -5 to -25 dB below the initial value are more
reasonable and further extrapolated to obtain the decay of 60 dB.
The reverberation time is one of the most important quality criteria for the acoustical
design of a room and is useful to predict in advance its acoustical behavior in simulation
programs.
2.2.2 Early Decay Time [EDT]
The early decay time (EDT) is obtained by evaluating the decay of the first 10 dB. Early
reverberation contains the primary reflections which arrive within the Haas fusion zone.
These reflections are perceived as being part of the direct sound and tend to reinforce the
direct sound. The early reverberation also affects the clarity of sound, which increases
with more energy comprised in the early reverberation and decreases, respectively.
The EDT shows a better correlation with the reverberation perceived due to masking
effects while running speech and music. The later and weaker part of the decay often
gets masked by the next syllable or musical note.[5]
2.2.3 Center Time
Similar to Clarity the paramter Center Time ts is also used to describe the balance
between early and late arriving sound energy. It can be considered as the balance
between clarity and reverberation which describes the center of gravity of the squared
impulse response:[5]

Z ∞
th2 (t) dt
ts = Z0 ∞ [s] (2.1)
h2 (t) dt
0
Low values of ts correspond to clear sounds, whereas higher values refer to the dominance
of late and reverberant energy. The subjective difference limen for ts is about 10 ms,
and the expected diffuse field value can be given by:[5]
T
ts,exp = (2.2)
13.8
2.3 Energy Criteria
2.3.1 Clarity
Clarity deals with the balance between the early and late arriving energy and is defined
as the ratio of the sound energy in the first 50 ms (speech) or 80 ms (music), and the
rest of the energy received after the given initial time interval. As mentioned before
the clarity becomes better with a greater contribution of the early reflections occurring
within the first (50-80 ms) time interval. [5][1]
Since this project deals with the acoustics in home theaters both time intervals are
reasonable for calculations.
Z t
h2 (t) dt
C = 10log10 Z 0∞ [dB] (2.3)
h2 (t) dt
t
where t=50 for speech and t=80 for music
2.4 Spaciousness
Spaciousness is an important factor for the listener regarding the perception of auditory
events. Spaciousness can be created by early lateral reflections from side walls, which
gives the listener the feeling of being enveloped by the sound due to the impression of
the sound arriving from different directions.

2.4.1 Apparent Source Width
Apparent source width (ASW) is the perceived sound image, which is wider than the
physical source. The source appears wider when there is a high level of early lateral
reflections occurring within 80 ms of the arrival of the direct sound.[5]
2.4.2 Listeners Envelopment [LEV]
LEV can be used to describe the feeling of being inside and surrounded by the rever-
berant sound field in a room and is improved by late lateral reflections (after 80 ms).
Frequencies in a range from 100 to 1 kHz mostly contribute to the perception of LEV.
[5]
2.4.3 Lateral Energy Fraction [LEF]
The lateral energy fraction is an objective measure to compare the lateral sound energy
with the energy from all directions. The subjective parameters ASW and LEV are both
correlated with LEF. The lateral energy fraction can be given as:
Z t=80ms
h21 (t) dt
LEF = Zt=5ms
t=80ms [%] (2.4)
h2 (t) dt
t=0ms
where h1 is the impulse response of the lateral reflections and h is the impulse response
of all the reflections.
Figure 2.1 depicts the frequency ranges over which several audible effects are dominating
the perceived soundscape during sound reproduction in rooms.
2.4.4 Interaural Cross-Correlation Coefficient [IACC]
Lateral reflections can cause two different sound pressure levels at each of the listener’s
ears. This can be measured and described through the interaural cross-correlation coef-
ficient.
Z t2
hL (t)hR (t + τ ) dt
IACCt1 ,t2 = max sZ t1
(2.5)
t2 Z t2
2
hL (t) dt h2R (t) dt
t1 t1

Figure 2.1: Frequency ranges of several audible effects caused by reflected sounds. [10,
From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 5.2]
t1 , t2 define the time interval of the impulse response

τ [-1 ms, +1 ms] is the interval (roughly the time delay of sound between left and
right ear) for finding the maximum of the correlation.
hL , hR are the impulse responses (octave band filtered) measured at the entrance
of both ears
IACC takes values between 0, for no correlation, and 1 for perfect correlation
A final value can be obtained by α = 1 - IACC which increases with the decorrelation
of the sound at each ear. The IACC coincides with the impression of the Apparent
Source Width for the time interval [0 ms, 100 ms] and corresponds for a later interval
[100 ms, 1000ms] with the perception of being enveloped by the sound described through
the LEV. [5, 1]
2.4.5 Speech Intelligibility
Speech intelligibility is a useful parameter to determine the audibility of speech e.g. re-
produced by a center channel in home theaters, in a room. A common way to assess
speech intelligibility is by measuring the speech transmission index STI, which deter-
mines the modulation transfer as the ratio between the transmitted and the received
degree of modulation. As speech can be regarded as a signal which is modulated in its
amplitude, the speech information is therefore the degree of the associated modulation.
The degree of modulation in the signal and thus the audibility of speech will be reduced

by a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), individual reflections or adverse reverberation in a

room. [5] To achieve a good intelligibility, the SNR should stay within 5-20 dB. A prac-
tical example in case of home theaters would be the ratio between speech and everything
else (background music, ambient sounds, etc.) interfering the audibility of speech in a
soundtrack. Another useful method for acoustical practitioners is suggested by profes-
sionals. To find out about influence of a room on speech intelligibility a simple test can
be done by assessing the audibility of having a conversation between one person in the
location of a loudspeaker (preferably a center loudspeaker, where commonly speech in
home theaters comes from) and another seated in the audience area. [10, 4]
Nevertheless, reflections also have the ability to act very supportive on improving speech
intelligibility especially if they are occurring within the first 50 ms. In this case early
reflections have the same effect on speech intelligibility as increasing the level of the
direct sound. [10]
2.5 Directivity Index
The Directivity Index is an indicator of the ability of the sound source to confine the
sound energy into a narrower radian:
DI = 10log10 Q [dB] (2.6)

where Directivity Factor Q is the ratio of the squared sound pressure level at one mea-
sured point with a certain distance (on-axis) to the mean squared SPL over all directions
at the same distance.
Sound energy from an omnidirectional sound source would represent a Directivity of Q
= 1, resulting in a DI = 0 dB
2.6 Acoustics in Domestic Rooms
Reasonable absorption in domestic rooms can be caused by surfaces such as carpets,

curtains and perforated acoustical ceilings as well as objects like chairs, sofas, tables or
closets, which are absorbing and at the same time scattering to sound. The influence of
small rooms on reflections of sound is substantial when it comes to frequency ranges with
wavelengths close to the dimensions of a room. This impact will be discussed and state
of the art methods for controlling in particular unwanted reflections in home theaters
are shown in this work. As it comes to room resonances at low frequencies the sound
ray approach reaches its applicability and the related standing waves can be illustrated
best in terms of sound waves.
Furthermore, the late reflections of domestic rooms are remarkably abated with increas-
ing distance from the sound source. Hence, according to Schultz (cited in Toole 63) it
is not applicable to apply calculations that are based on diffusivity and the associated
Diffuse Field Theory like the use of Sabine’s equation for determining the proper amount
of sound-absorbing material. [10]
In conclusion, the sound field in a listening room like in home theaters is considered to
be diffuse, therefore, reverberation time is not a useful parameter.

2.6.1 Reverberation Time
Reverberation time is commonly used as a measure for international standards. Never-

theless, in domestic-sized rooms it seems that the reverberation time is not that impor-
tant to many professionals when it comes to sound reproduction in small rooms.
It is still debatable if late-reflected sound has an influence on sound perceived in such
environments. In small listening rooms, the sound field mostly comprises the direct
sound, strong early reflections and the weak late-reflected sound field. The directional
characteristics of the loudspeaker and the adjacent room boundaries dominate the im-
pression of the listener in terms of the reproduced sound. Reverberation time is not
capable to explain any of those effects and therefore not useful as a predictor of how
sound will sound as well as perceived by the listener.[10]
2.6.2 Loudspeakers and Rooms
Knowing the interaction of loudspeakers with the room itself is of great interest when
it comes to listener locations in home theaters. The following figure 2.2 (b) shows such
an interaction in frequency responses measured at four different listener locations for a
loudspeaker in position C.
The frequency response shows great complexity especially above 200 Hz. This complex-
ity comes from a high number of reflections occurring from many different directions
and times. In figure 2.2 (c) each frequency response is an average over all six listener
locations and just dependent on the three different loudspeaker positions (A, B, C).
The domination of the loudspeaker position on the frequency response can be shown
below 300 Hz. Higher frequencies are not that much affected and hence follow a similar
pattern. The first order length mode at 26 Hz is not affected by these position changes.
Figure 2.2 (d) shows that the incidental sound is also influenced by listening locations.
In (d) measurements made at listeners placed at seats 1, 3, 4 and 6 are averaged over
loudspeaker locations 3 through 6. Again, similar effects on the frequency response can
be seen. The high frequency range mostly follows a similar pattern, where the low fre-
quencies are determined by each seat location. [10] Important conclusions can be drawn
from this graph which should be considered for planning a home theaters.
The region around 50 Hz shows different sound pressure levels dependent on the listening
spot. Listener locations close to the pressure peak (front row seats) of the second-order
room mode1 will receive a powerful bass, whereas listeners located close to the null (back
row seats) are experiencing a less powerful or more even bass. The dip at 80 Hz can be
explained by the loudspeaker placement close to 1/4 length of the room and therefore
causing destructive interference with the adjacent front room boundary. This results in
failing to excite the third-order mode.
Moreover, a difference in the frequency spectrum regarding the low and upper frequencies
can be observed. A transition zone between the discrete room modes in the low frequency
range and the irregular spaced higher frequencies can be given by a cross-over frequency
fs , also called Schroeder frequency:
1
speed of sound (343 m/s @ 20℃) divided by the room length of 6.7 m

Figure 2.2: Frequency responses in a listening room dependent on listener and loud-
speaker locations. [10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 4.10]

r
T
fc = 2000 (2.7)
V
where T is the reverberation time in seconds, and V is the volume of the room in cubic
meters.
The figure 2.3 shows the transition zone of the cross-over frequency in dependence on
the room size and the application of the descriptive Wave Acoustics (reflections are
considered as waves) and Ray Acoustics (reflections are considered as rays) dependent
on the Schroeder frequency.
Figure 2.3: Transition zone in between the domination of discrete room modes and ir-
regular spaced higher frequencies. [10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 4.12]
Since the Schroeder frequency is based on empirical observations, it can be a useful

parameter to make predictions but for more precision it requires detailed acoustical
measurements and visual analysis of the obtained data. [10]
2.6.3 Loudspeaker Placement
Loudspeaker placement has a has a major effect on the sound in home theaters. Loud-
speakers in small listening rooms most likely interact with adjacent room boundaries,
which occurs dependent on the frequency, when the loudspeaker is placed less than a
wavelength to one or more boundaries and thus equalization for this interaction might be
desired. Correction methods may include repositioning of the loudspeaker with respect
to the boundaries as well as equalization of the frequency response of the loudspeaker,
always concerning the desired sound at the listening location. It is not necessary to cor-
rect the sound for the entire room as the sweet spot for a surround sound arrangement
in home theaters is limited anyway. Two potential locations for a good loudspeaker
performance are free standing and flush-mounted in a wall. An on-wall placement is

just reasonable if the loudspeaker is specifically designed for this purpose. Placing a
loudspeaker near room boundaries can result in an increased radiated sound level up
to +18 dB, assuming that the loudspeaker can be regarded as a monopole point source
which produces an omnidirectional sound field for frequencies with wavelengths that
are long compared to the source size. Mounting a loudspeaker on or in a large plane
reduces the original radiation angle (4π) by half (semi-spherical radiation), resulting in
an increased sound level of +6 dB. Additional energy is now reflected into the front
hemisphere. In case of two room boundaries, again the radiation angle is reduced by
half, to π increasing the sound level for additionally +6 dB. Furthermore, this explains
the effect of placing a subwoofer into a room corner which now implies three adjacent
room boundaries, reducing the area of the initial spherical sound radiation to 1/8. The
initial obtained sound pressure level gets a boost of +18 dB, resulting in a more powerful
boomy sound that can be either desired or unwanted. [10]
The figures 2.4-2.6 depict the loudspeaker-mounting effects shown in the measured on-
axis frequency response, the total sound power output as well as the associated loud-
speaker Directivity Index (DI) in decibel for five different installations as found in home
theaters.
Figure 2.4 shows the measurement of a loudspeaker in an anechoic chamber (free field)
which would represent a sort of free standing sound source inside a home theater. The
DI is 0 up to 150 Hz showing an omnidirectional loudspeaker performance and becomes
progressively more directional as frequency increases due to the violation of the loud-
speaker being a point source for higher frequencies with shorter wavelengths. [10]
Figure 2.5 (a) illustrates the effect of a flush-mounted in-wall loudspeaker. Compared
to the free standing loudspeaker, an increase of the SPL in the low frequency range up
to 500 Hz can be observed which is due to the additional sound energy being reflected
forward by the wall. This effect shows less influence for frequencies above 500 Hz due
to the increased directivity of the loudspeaker and therefore eliminating higher-order
cancellations. As mentioned before, correction in terms of loudspeaker equalization is a
useful way to address the increased sound pressure levels. [10]
Figure 2.5 (b) depicts the results of a loudspeaker performance, mounted close to the
surface of a wall. Now, besides the increase of the sound pressure levels in the low
frequency range one can see a cancellation effect, which occurs with respect to the
round-trip distance (78.8 cm) from the loudspeaker to the wall and back. This distance
is about one-half wave length of 220 Hz creating a reflection with opposite phase relative
to the direct sound and thus causing a dip at this frequency. Furthermore, a lower sound
power output over a wider frequency range after the frequency dip (220 Hz) up to 500
Hz can be observed for the attached on-wall speaker, compared to the flush-mounted
installation. [10] Figure 2.6 shows the influence of placing a loudspeaker into a cavity. In
(a) the loudspeaker placement in the cavity produces high quality resonances as well as
diffraction effects caused by the edges of the cavity as sound leaves the cavity resulting in
constructive and destructive interference. Figure 2.7 (b) depicts the impact of the cavity
filled with fiberglass. The diffraction effect, as seen before in case of the untreated cavity
could be addressed and improvements can be seen. Nevertheless, there is still evidence
of a decreased performance when compared to the flush-mounted option. [10]
In conclusion, the adjacent boundary effects are affecting a wide frequency range and

thus are not easy to address. Therefore, care has to be taken in terms of loudspeaker
placements. Eventually, it could be shown that there are just two loudspeaker place-
ments such as free standing and flush-mounted which perform quite well leading into a
good way to start addressing the room acoustics in a home theater.
Figure 2.4: Small bookshelf loudspeaker (16.5 cm) measured in an anechoic chamber.
[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 12.8 (a)]
2.7 Perceptive Effects
Humans are adaptable to sound and therefore able to compensate for what may be
seen as flaws of a room.[10] The localization of a sound source in a room comprises two
major dimensions. The identification of Direction, which includes the precedence effect
for allowing us to localize the sound source in the presence of room reflections and the
identification of Distance, also determined by means of early reflections. The spatial
impression, as introduced before through the parameter Spaciousness can be separated
in the apparent source width (ASW) and the listener envelopment (LEV).

Figure 2.5: Small bookshelf loudspeaker, in (a) flush-mounted and (b) attached to a wall.
[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 12.9]

Figure 2.6: Small bookshelf loudspeaker, (a) placed in a cavity and (b) a cavity filled
with fiberglass. [10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 12.11]
The spatial impression perceived in sound reproduction can be influenced by several fac-
tors. The recording technique is usually the prime determinant as well as the directivity
of the loudspeaker and the reflectivity of the surfaces contributing to the first lateral
reflections. It was also found that wide-dispersion loudspeakers with a lower sound qual-
ity can be preferred compared to a narrow-dispersion loudspeaker having superior sound
quality. This can be explained by the early lateral reflections (at least 30-40 dB below the
direct sound) from different directions which tend to fill in the interference dips, making
the spectrum more pleasant to the listener. Thus, in multichannel sound reproduction,
the influence of the loudspeaker quality and the listening room itself may become less
important. However, wide-dispersion loudspeakers need to face surfaces with the ability
to cause lateral reflections which is almost a rule in room design. Nevertheless, every
loudspeaker should perform well as an individual especially during an isolated perfor-
mance, which frequently applies for center channels in sound reproduction in movies.

The reason for a good performance in isolation is that hard panned sounds have the
modest effect on creating image broadening and hence spatial enhancement might not
apply in that case. [10]
2.8 Spatial Effects
Sound reproduction in rooms induce reflections which cause different sounds at each of
the listener’s ears. This reduces the interaural cross-correlation (IACC 2.4.4 ). Absorbing
the first reflections has a dominant effect on the diffusivity and the IACC which finally
results in a change of the perceived spaciousness. The change of diffusivity dependent
on the introduced absorbing material in a room can be shown through Mayer E. (cited
in Toole 114). Figure 2.7 illustrates how diffusivity changes just by rearranging the
absorbing material as shown in (b) and (c). Figure 2.7 (a) shows an empty room with a
maximum achieved diffusivity of 69 %. In (b) the absorbing material covers the whole
floor and by allocating the absorptive material in (c), the first reflections where addressed
which results in a reduction of diffusivity of about 43 % compared to the arrangement
in (b).[10]
Kishinaga et al. (cited in Toole 116) found that reflective side walls, resulting in a
more reflective sound field and hence causing a wider sound image of a stereo source,
are preferred if listeners are listening to music or ambient sounds. This preference
correlates with a reduced IACC compared to absorbing side walls which are preferred
for monitoring purposes in a recording process. Moreover, improvements in listening
experiences can be achieved by applying absorptive material behind loudspeakers and
hence improves image localization as well as sound coloration. [10]
A difference between musicians and ordinary listeners was also found by Ando et al.
(cited in Toole 119 ). He found that musicians judge reflections differently. The difference
was about seven times greater compared to ordinary listeners. A satisfied amount of
spaciousness from reflections was reached much earlier with lower sound levels. [10]
Humans are able to "listen through" a room which means that despite room reflections
we have the ability to ignore them, thus, paying more attention on the sound source.
[10] It is tempting to speculate that this is roughly valid in general for people dealing
with music or audio professionals. The differences between listeners monitoring music
while focusing on the detailed sound and the ordinary listener who just wants to enjoy
the reproduced sound is existent but difficult to generalize.
2.9 Acoustical Interferences
Acoustical interferences occur when the direct sound from a loudspeaker interacts with
the reflected sound inside a room. This interference can either be constructive or de-
structive. Destructive interference occurs when two sounds are out of phase that is, one
half wavelength apart in time. Whereas constructive interference arises when two waves
are in phase with each other. Destructive interference in high frequency ranges occurs
with dips spaced relatively close to each other what makes it become less audible. This
can be explained through the perception of sound in the inner ear. The basilar mem-
brane within the cochlea, where the frequency content of sound gets separated spatially,

Figure 2.7: Change of diffusivity (100 % means perfect diffusivity in which sound ar-
rives at the listening location equally from all directions) dependent on the
introduced absorbing material.
[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 8.1]

can be divided in 24 bands that can be seen as an array of band-pass filters, also called
auditory filters. Frequencies that fall within a critical bandwidth (rises with increasing
frequency), are assessed mutually what makes the ear perceptually incapable to sepa-
rate the spectral features. Whereby fluctuations in low frequency ranges can become
unpleasantly audible if the dips are isolated and far from each other.
Moreover, the perceived spectrum is a result of a summation of the spectra at each
ear, which makes coloration from lateral reflections less problematic. Krumbholtz et al.
(cited in Toole 150) could show that this summation can even be emulated by presenting
the summation of two the different sound events arriving at both ears identically to both
ears. As mentioned earlier in 2.7, listeners tend to adapt to the acoustics in rooms and
have the ability of listening "through" the room to perceive the natural image of the
sound source. It can be considered as an ability to separate between a changing (the
program) and a stationary (the transmission path) spectrum. Yet, this perceptional
adaptation is only possible as long as the sound source is stable. [10]
Toole (2008) takes it further and states that according to a listening test (1984) with
acoustic professionals made in their own listening rooms, the sound reproduction from a
loudspeaker, set up in a stereo left location, perceived in the "sweet spot" was enjoyable
even with the flaws in the frequency response shown in figure 2.8:
Figure 2.8: Measurements made in the sweet spot of six different listening rooms.
[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 13.1]

2.10 General Considerations about Room Modes
Room modes are acoustical interferences inside a room, either constructive or destruc-
tive, resulting in narrow-band peaks or dips in the measured frequency response of the
room. The audible consequences for listeners in a home theater may be excessive rein-
forced sounds in case of constructive interference or entirely missing in the perception of
the listener when sound interferes destructively. This can be observed by moving around
a room while perceiving a change of the sound level at the frequency of the resonance.
There are three types of room modes:
Room Modes Involved surfaces Energetic Ranking

Axial One pair of parallel surfaces 1
Tangential Two pair of parallel surfaces 2
Oblique All surfaces are involved 3
The energetic ranking can be explained by the number of surfaces involved. Energy is
lost at every surface interaction which makes the axial modes the most energetic ones.
The following equation can be used to to identify the type of room modes with respect
to the room dimensions:
s 2 2 2
c nx ny nz
fnx ny nz = + + (2.8)
2 lx ly lz
fnx ny nz .................frequency of the mode

nx , ny , nz ..............mode order, integers from 0 to ∞
l...........................dimension of the room [m]
c...........................speed of sound [m/s]
Olive (cited in Toole 197) showed that 30 % of the subjective sound quality judgements
are due to the performance in the lower frequency ranges. [10] In home cinemas, one
aims to deliver a good sound quality at all listening spots in the audience area. However,
this can be a high demanding objective as will be shown in this chapter. Seat-to-seat
variations in sound level inside the listening area are mostly due to room resonances.
Figure 2.9 depicts how a standing wave is formed between two parallel room boundaries:
As is generally known, there are room dimensions which are often recommended by
professionals like Bolt, Boner, Louden, Sepmeyer, Volkmann. However, according to
Linkwitz, Fazenda et al. (cited in Toole 206), it seems that "the acoustical performance
of rooms cannot be generalized on the basis of their dimensional ratios" (Toole 207),
and thus are irrelevant in sound reproduction. Therefore, other considerations have to
be taken into account to address room modes in home theaters.

Figure 2.9: Standing wave between two parallel surfaces.

[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 13.1]

3 IMPROVING ROOM ACOUSTICS
3 Improving Room Acoustics

It is a priority to have loudspeakers with good quality before starting to address the
acoustics of the home theater rather than trying to correct the performance of a poor
sound reproduction system. Something to consider is that a multichannel sound repro-
duction system is the standard in modern home theaters and therefore the contribution
of the room on the impression of sound quality is small for reasons discussed in the pre-
vious chapter. Moreover, one should not try to correct the acoustics of a home theater
by examining acoustical interferences through bringing in pink noise and simultaneously
walking around the room. [10] Toole (2008) gives the following reasons:
Broadband noise is not a realistic program material and might reveal more flaws
than the material played in such environments.
A listener is usually seated at one position and as seen before, able to adapt to the
sound.
3.1 Improving Room Acoustics through Passive Acoustic

Treatment
3.1.1 Passive Absorption
Passive acoustic absorbers are controlling reflections of sound without input power from
outside. Examples for passive absorbers are:
Porous absorbers
Panel absorbers
Resonance absorbers
– Slat absorbers
– Perforated panel absorbers
3.1.2 Porous Absorbers
Sound can be understood as the vibrations of air molecules. Porous absorbers are open-
cell materials and address the vibratory energy by means of their resistance. The energy
penetrating the small spaces in porous materials can be dissipated in form of heat. This
kind of absorbers are most effective at locations (where sound propagation inside the
room has the most particle movement (particle velocity). That is placed at a distance
of a quarter wavelength from a hard reflecting surface. If mounted on a surface, porous
absorbers are most effective at higher frequencies and extends to the lower frequencies
by increasing the thickness of the absorber.

3.1.3 Panel Absorbers
Panel absorbers are used to obtain absorption in the low-frequency ranges. Now, sound
pressure is addressed rather than particle velocity by dissipating the acoustic energy
mechanically through motion. The absorption is maximal at the frequency at which
the absorber is resonant and at locations where the sound pressure shows maxima like
room boundaries or room corners. Keeping room boundaries flexible can also be useful
to absorb energy in the low frequency range. Panel absorbers can be tuned to specific
room modes by changing the mass of the panel as well as the stiffness of the air cavity
behind the panel which acts as a spring. The absorption can be increased as porous
material is used to fill the air cavity behind the panel. An empirical formula for the
resonance frequency can be given by:
60
f0 = p [4] (3.1)
(m)(d)
m.............surface density or mass per unit of area [kg/m2 ]

d..............depth of the airspace behind the panel [m]
As one increases the airspace behind the panel (less stiff spring) or the mass of the panel
itself, obtains a decrease of the resonant frequency. Figure 3.1 depicts a panel absorber
stuffed with absorbent material placed on a room boundary.
3.1.4 Resonance Absorber
Resonance absorbers, also referred to as Helmholtz absorbers, are also based on the
spring-mass principle. These devices consist of a tube with volume behind. Helmholtz
absorbers can be tuned to a particular resonant frequency by changing the volume of
the air cavity or the dimensions of the port. Absorption is caused through the friction
of the vibrating air inside the tube. Friction loss can be increased by placing acoustical
damping material into the tube. Again, absorption is maximal at the frequency at which
the absorber is tuned and at locations where the sound pressure shows maxima.
The resonance frequency for Helmholtz resonators with square opening can be given by:
s
c S
f0 = [4] (3.2)
2π V (l + 2∆l)
and for Helmholtz resonators with round openings by:
(100R)
f0 = p [4] (3.3)
V (l + 1.6R)

Figure 3.1: Panel absorber stuffed with absorbent material.

[4, From Everest Pohlmann, 2009, fig. 12-24]
c.........................speed of sound [m/s]

S........................cross-sectional area of the resonator opening [m2 ]
2∆ = 0.9a..........resonator mouth correction factor
a.........................edge length of the square opening [m]
R........................radius of the opening [m]
V ........................volume of the resonator [m3 ]
l..........................length of the resonator opening [m]
3.1.5 Perforated Panel Absorbers
Perforated panels are composed of several holes representing the tubes of a Helmholtz
resonator with a the associated air cavity behind the holes. Sound that hits the panel
perpendicularly causes the resonators being in phase with each other leading to max-
imum performance of the perforated panel. Absorption decreases if sound strikes the
panel at an angle.

r
p
f0 = 200 [4] (3.4)
(d)(t)
f0 .........................frequency of resonance [Hz]

p..........................perforation percentage [%]
t..........................effective hole length (correction factor for t = panel thickness + 0.8 ×
hole diameter) [m]
d..........................depth of airspace [m]
The formula for calculating the perforation percentage is shown in figure 3.2:
Figure 3.2: Panel absorber stuffed with absorbent material.

[4, From Everest Pohlmann, 2009, fig. 12-33]
3.1.6 Slat Absorbers
The last type of resonant absorbers shown comprises closely spaced slats over an air
cavity. Again, a resonant system is formed by the interaction of mass (air between the
slots) with a spring (air in the cavity). Absorption can be extended by applying a glass
fiber board, commonly used behind the slots. Furthermore, the frequency of interest can
be addressed by changing the width of the slots as well as the depth of the cavity and
can be calculated as:
r
p
f0 = 216 [4] (3.5)
(d)(D)
f0 ........................frequency of resonance [Hz]

p.........................perforation percentage [%]

D........................depth of airspace [m]

d.........................thickness of slat [m]
3.1.7 Bass Traps
Bass traps are low-frequency resonators which are placed in room corner. Energy is
concentrated in all the corners of every room mode, therefore, placing such bass traps
in this corners can remove the energy of several order room modes. Figure 3.3 depicts
for different solutions to address room modes in corners of a room:
(A) Built-in corner resonator:
Several resonator types are possible such as perforated, slat and panel ab-
sorbers.
(B) Stacked cylindrical absorber:
This bass trap consists of two stacked cylinders whereas a smaller diame-
ter unit is on top of a larger unit. The cylinders are composed of a wire
mesh skeleton covered with fibrous material. The front hemisphere of the
cylinders is reflective for frequencies above 400 Hz. Frequencies below that
can penetrate the cylinders. This arrangement provides diffusion as well as
low-frequency absorption. Absorption occurs through dissipation of acoustic
energy by frictional losses. The sound pressure on the outside is higher than
inside the cylinder. Air will move from high pressure to low pressure areas.
This pressure change is converted into air movement within several layers of
the cylinder surface and eventually decreases the air movement by friction.
[4, 9]
(C) Polycylindrical resonator:
A polycyndrical absorber consists of a curved plywood with an air cavity
behind the panel. The cavity can be divided with randomly spaced bulkheads
to create several small cavities with various volumes thus resulting in different
resonance frequencies for each cavity. This also requires the cavities to be
airtight. Absorption can be increased down to lower frequencies by filling the
cavities with absorbent material. This resonator also provides diffusion due
to the cylindrical shape above about 400 Hz.
(D) Resonator with diffuser:
This absorber has two absorptive sides and one quadratic residue diffuser side,
also referred to as Schroeder Diffuser. The two absorptive sides are facing the
corner for modal control whereas the diffuse side faces the room. Incident
sound on the diffusive side breaks up and is redirected into several directions.
A reduction in the level of sound is achieved through the absorptive as well
as the diffusive character of this resonator.

Figure 3.3: Four different bass trap solutions.

[4, From EVEREST F.A. POHLMANN Ken C., 2009, fig. 18-4]
3.2 Acoustical Diffusers
Acoustic diffusers are used to break up the incident sound and redirecting the reflections
into many directions. Diffusers are only effective where the wavelength of the sound is
long compared to the surface irregularities. The diffusion of sound is always associated
by sound absorption which can be explained by the distribution of energy of the direct
sound over a larger range of redirected sounds. Diffusers of hemicylindrical shapes are
often seen in listening rooms. However, the scattering effect is reduced if a diffuser
consists of multiple semi-cylinders. This inefficiency can be addressed by spacing them
at random distances as well as varying the depth and the angles of the cylinders. In
home theaters, many furnishing elements act as obstacles when facing sound waves and
can be useful in scattering them which eventually can yield in improving the acoustics.
[10]
3.3 Home Furnishing as Sound Absorbers
Domestic materials can be very useful to absorb as well as scatter sound. Sound absorp-
tion can even be caused by redirecting sound through scattering elements to absorbent
materials in rooms that are already part of home furnishing. Chairs in the listening
area of home cinemas have scattering as well as absorbing character thus are useful in
improving room acoustics. [10]

Figure 3.4: Principle of a diffusing surface.

[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 21.10]
3.3.1 Curtains
Curtains are commonly in rooms used as they are part of home furnishing. However,
home consumer curtains have a little effect on sound absorption since they are usually to
light in weight. The amount of absorption is dependent on the weight of the curtain and
folds which increase the surface area that sound is facing. Provided that curtains are
heavy, their porous characteristics can be well used for soundproofing. The absorption
occurs as air penetrates the fabric. Furthermore, the absorbing effect of curtains varies
with distance from the adjacent solid room boundary and is maximum where air particle
velocity is highest which is a quarter wavelength from the wall (pressure minimum). [4]
3.3.2 Carpets
Carpets can be effectively absorbent at mid and high mid frequencies. Although, this
will lead into a drop of the overall reverberation time, this also applies an imbalanced ab-
sorption to the frequency response of a room. Hence, this imbalance can be compensated
by means of low-frequency absorbers. One should keep in mind that also the material
of a commonly used carpet underlay can have a significant effect on sound absorption.
[4]
Figure 3.5 (a) shows that reasonable reverberation times in domestic rooms can be
achieved through usual room furnishing. (b) depicts a mean RT of around 0.4 seconds
according to a survey made in domestic rooms in Canada. Similar results may be
obtained in e.g. in Europe.
3.4 Improving Room Acoustics through Active Absorption
Active absorption can be understood as an instrument for actively influencing the low
frequencies in a room. Room modes at low frequencies behave as a minimum-phase

Figure 3.5: Reverberation time dependent on room furnishing.

[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 16.1, data from Bradley]
phenomena. This means that there is a relation between the pattern of a frequency
response and the behaviour in the time domain. A prominent peak in the frequency
domain will be heard as a boom and a longer decay in the time domain. A reasonable
decay for listening rooms at home would be around 350 ms. [17] Therefore, treating
room resonances in the frequency domain will affect the behaviour in the time domain.
Reducing a bump in the frequency response will effectively reduce a booming sound.
Room modes due to reflections combining with the direct sound of the speaker are an
issue up to the transition frequency where the room significantly affects the sound of
the loudspeaker which mostly result in isolated sound energies. Above the transition
frequency, active room optimization has less importance since the room has little effect
on the loudspeaker performance. For obtaining the transition frequency for a specific
room see section two in 5.3. The transition frequency for a small home theater will most
likely be between 200 and 400 Hz see figure 2.3. Room mode cancellation and seat to
seat optimization by means of active room optimization will be discussed starting with
the following recommendations.
Optimization through:
1. Appropriate subwoofer arrangements
2. Active absorption by means of reverse sound reproduction
3. Correction by using non-linear bass synthesis
4. Equalization and adjustments of the loudspeaker power output
5. Signal processing with optimization algorithms based on acoustic measurements

3.4.1 Appropriate Subwoofer Arrangements
The limits within Room mode cancellation through subwoofer arrangements works best
is listed below: [10]
The room has rectangular shape
No openings to adjacent rooms
Room boundaries with similar surface characteristics
Flat walls
Listening location is inside the area where optimum room mode cancellation can
be achieved
Figure 3.6 represents an example for the first recommendation:
(a) Shows a single subwoofer exciting a standing wave (first-order width mode) between
two parallel walls. The sound pressure at the wall surface always shows its maximum
while air particle velocity will be zero which can be explained by the solid wall that sound
has to face. Air particles are forced to stop at the room boundary while pressure will
be built-up. Sound pressure maxima of first-order modes face each other with inverse
polarity.
(b) Illustrates two methods of minimizing the first order room mode:
1. A single subwoofer placed in a pressure minimum attenuates the first-order mode
by failing to excite it.
2. One subwoofer on each side by driving the mode destructively, leading to a can-
cellation of this standing wave.
(c) Depicts that the methods shown in (b) are failing to attenuate the second order
room mode because of driving the pressure maxima of the second order mode with same
polarity.
(d) Is an example for a subwoofer arrangement in order to attenuate the first three room
mode orders. By placing two loudspeakers into the sound pressure minima of second-
order room mode also incorporates a depression of the first- and third-order room mode
since both subwoofers are still located in the pressure maxima of the two latter ones
In literature, the term "seat-to-seat variations" is often mentioned related to delivering
the same sound to every seat in the audience. In home theaters, this can be of interest if
the "sweet spot" with optimum sound should cover more than one seat. In this case also
active sound absorption like equalization in the signal path or signal processing based
on measurements made at more than one seat is limited in addressing this demand
and will always be a compromise. However, using arrangements of multiple subwoofers
will reduce such seat-to-seat variations and combined with signal processing applied in
the signal path will result in a similar sound delivered to listener in the sweet spot.
Recommended multiple subwoofer arrangements by Welti are depicted in Figure 3.7.
A practical example is given in Figure 3.8. Data are taken from Welti (cited in Toole
224). Not much explanation is needed to see that compared to the subwoofer placement

Figure 3.6: Room mode cancellation by means of appropriate subwoofer placement.

[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 13.11]
Figure 3.7: Recommended arrangements for multiple subwoofers.

[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 13.12]

in the left room corner, which causes to excite all of the horizontal-plane modes, the
arrangement in (d) has eliminated most of the room modes including higher order and
tangential room modes up to 80 Hz. Seat-to-seat variations given as the Mean spatial
Variance are reduced and a similar sound is perceived at each listening location. Since
the remaining room mode at 63 Hz is a height mode, there is no seat-to-seat variation
in the audience area. In case of a coincidence between the ear height of the listeners
and the remained room mode, one can easily face this problem by adjusting the seating
height or by applying either passive absorbers (ceiling/floor) or active absorbers on both
sides.
3.4.2 Active Absorption-Reverse Sound Reproduction
Reverse sound reproduction can be used so that two interfering sounds will cancel out
each other. This can be achieved by usually placing one or two sound sources at the
opposite end of two walls, working together as primary and a secondary sources. The
secondary source is equipped with a microphone to record the sound from the opposite
source location. Based on the recorded sound there will be a reproduced sound from
that source that has reverse polarity in order to attenuate the incident sound leading to
a suppression of the adjacent wall reflection. [18]
3.4.3 Virtual Bass Room Mode Correction
The idea for creation of a virtual bass is motivated by a psychoacoustic phenomena

as a result of the pitch-extraction in the inner ear and the brain. The presence of
higher order harmonic components creates the impression of the missing fundamental
frequency, e.g. 100 Hz in presence of 200 and 300 Hz. Room resonances can be filtered
and further replaced by virtual bass components leading to the illusion of the filtered
frequency. One has to note that by increasing the introduced higher order harmonics
will result in a change of the overall sound quality. Figure 3.13 depicts the virtual room
correction procedure of creating the missing fundamental. The unprocessed signal is
routed to a parametric equalization routine (PEQ) with notch filters to even out the
peaks of the room resonances. Simultaneously, the signal is routed to a set of bandpass
filters (BPFN ) placed at each of the problematic room modes and eventually processed
by the virtual bass unit. The output of each virtual bass unit is summed, amplified (G)
and recombined with the equalized signal and further fed to the designated loudspeaker
channel.
3.4.4 Equalization
Equalization can be an useful instrument to reduce excessive levels of room resonances.

Equalization alters the overall frequency response of a room, therefore, it can be helpful
to deliver a good bass to one listening position and at the same time making it worse for
other listening positions in the room. Equalization should be based on high-resolution
measurements in order to reveal the effective room resonances. Because of performing
steady-state measurements, equalization is only effective if applied in the low-frequency

Figure 3.8: Example of Room mode attenuation by multiple subwoofer arrangements.

[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 13.13, data from Welti]

Figure 3.9: Room mode correction by means of virtual bass synthesis.

[18, From Adam, Hawksford, 2011, fig. 13]
ranges. The influence of the room on mid and high frequencies results into a time
domain phenomena and cannot be revealed by steady-state measurements. The time
domain phenomena for mid and high frequencies can be explained by their shorter
wavelengths and hence the sophisticated interferences of direct and reflected sounds
arriving at different times at different locations in the room. A 1/3-octave graphic
equalizer can be used to perform such equalization if a high resolution measurement was
made and the revealed resonant frequency coincides with the center frequency of the 1/3
octave filter. One has to consider that equalization can only address the peaks but will
never compensate for the dips in the standing wave pattern. [12]
3.4.5 Subwoofer Placement Combined with Signal Processing
Signal processing with optimization algorithms are useful if passive sound improvements
fail to improve the acoustic of a room especially in the low frequencies to deliver the
desired sound to the listener or especially to a broader listening area. The optimiza-
tion is achieved by computerized adjustments of the sound level, delay and frequency
response of each subwoofer to deliver similar and good sound across the seating area.
An optimization program adjusts several parameters of the signal processing based on
measurements made at each listening location in an iterative process to minimize the
seat-to-seat variations. The measurements can be made with any basic omnidirectional
pressure microphone. The microphone can be plugged into an analogue input of a sound
processor. This sound processor is usually equipped with everything needed to apply
the signal processing for the modification of the recorded frequency response. A test
signal is played through each loudspeaker and the loudspeaker-listener transfer path will
be measured for each listening location whereby measurements are grouped based on
their similarity. [17] Loudspeakers, room and signal processing create a linear and time
invariant system which applies to the principle of superposition and thus allows the opti-
mization to modify the loudspeaker-listener transfer functions of the latest measurement
during an iterative process. This technology is capable to optimize sound reproduction
in any rooms regardless the requirements (see 3.4.1) to which passive as well as some
active optimization solutions are limited. The following discusses the use of computer-

ized active room optimization and as an example a technology which was developed by
"Harman" called Sound Field Management or SFM. [8, 17]
Figure 3.10 illustrates the optimization paths as an example of a multiple loudspeaker
multiple listener scenario. I is the signal input, delivered to multiple loudspeakers.
M1 , M2 are the modification factors and R1 , R2 represent the two different frequency
responses at the listening locations. H11 through H22 are the transfer functions between
the loudspeakers and each listener. The optimization scenario can be considered to be a
time invariant and linear system and can be given in the frequency domain in equation
3.6 as: [14]
R1 (f ) = IH11 (f )M1 (f ) + IH21 (f )M2 (f ) (3.6)

R2 (f ) = IH12 (f )M1 (f ) + IH22 (f )M2 (f )
The input I can is assumed to be unity and the set of linear equations can be written
in matrix form as:

H11 H21 M11 R1
= (3.7)
H12 H22 M12 R2
The optimization reaches the optimum in case of an equal frequency response at each
listening location and will occur for R equal unity.

1
HM= (3.8)
1
A proper inverse of H has to be found and 3.9 can be reduced to equation 3.10:

1
H HM=H
−1 −1
(3.9)
1
This eventually leads to the required modifier M and only has to be calculated for
frequencies that require optimization.

1
M=H −1
(3.10)
1
Figure 3.11 shows a practical example of the performance of the "Sound Field Man-
agement" in a room which fails to meet several criteria for achieving similar sound at
different seating positions. The data of the condition of the room are listed below:

Figure 3.10: Example of a multiple loudspeaker and multiple listener scenario.

[13, From Toole F. E., Devantier A, 2003, fig. 6]
Almost square shaped

One opening to another space
One side wall mostly out of glass
Sloping ceiling
Front and rear walls with large alcoves
Listening positions are distributed over a wide area
By looking at the raw data in (a), one can see that there are large seat-to-seat variations
in the listening area expressed by the Mean Spatial Variance (MSV) of 23.62. The
variation in the relative levels (dB) at around 52 Hz for two different seating positions
is significant. Approximately 22 dB that is about four times louder in the perceived
loudness and about 160 times more power for the subwoofer to bring in to make up
for this difference. In (b), it is obvious that the sea-to-seat variations could have been
addressed, however, the low-frequency performance is still not smooth which is due the
two subwoofers in failing to attenuate the front-back wall room modes. As could have
been shown before, the performance of 4 subwoofers in the right positions can deal with
most of the resonances in a certain frequency range. In addition, for the four subwoofer
arrangement in (c), the sound field management found a need to reduce the output from
one of the four subwoofers by 6 dB and two by 12 dB. Equalization filters are applied to
each subwoofer and two of them are delayed by 5 and 10 ms respectively. The advantages
of two different active sound optimization approaches combined can be clearly observed
in the final frequency response.
3.5 Acoustic Decoupling of a Home Theater
The main topic of interest in this project is to show how to improve room acoustics
inside the room. Nevertheless, the influence of wall construction and how to achieve
acoustic decoupling of the interior can be seen in the following figures.

Figure 3.11: Example of Room mode attenuation by combining subwoofer arrangements

with signal processing.
[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 13.17, data from Welti]

Figure 3.12 (a-c), obtained through measuring data from Bradley (cited in Toole 480),
show the influence of several wall constructions by the use of gypsum board on lightweight
steel studs on the random-incidence absorption coefficients. It can be observed that in
case of two gypsum boards, decreasing the distance between them results in a lower
absorption coefficient between 100 and 200 Hz. Figure 3.12 (d) demonstrates that a
decrease of absorption at in this frequency range will also be caused by omitting one
layer of gypsum board at one side of the stud. (e) depicts less efficiency in absorbing this
frequencies by filling the cavity between the gypsum boards with absorbent material as
well as adding more layers of gypsum board on both sides. [10]
In conclusion one can observe that wall constructions can have significant influence on the
sound inside rooms. Furthermore, making room boundaries too rigid fails in diminishing
particularly the low-frequencies, which are mostly of interest if room modes should be
diminished.
Figure 3.12: Wall construction.

[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 21.6]
If acoustic decoupling is of significant interest because of noise penetrating from out-

side or in case one desires to not "share" the listening experience of a home cinema,
importance should be given to the distance between room boundaries in a multiple-wall
structure. Figure 3.13 depicts how to achieve acoustic decoupling of the interior from
the exterior. The instruments used to obtain such a room within a room principle are
hangers that provide isolation from low and high frequency vibrations through the com-
bination of a spring with a fiberglass element, a specific non-hardening sealant, as well
as isolated sway braces and floating floors.
Figure 3.13: Concept of a room within a room.

[2, From BALLOU Glen (Ed.), 1987, fig. 4-24]

4 SURROUND SOUND REPRODUCTION
4 Surround Sound Reproduction

In home theaters, a surround-sound system has the ability and the need to create impres-
sions of Space and Distance as well as the perception of direction. A typical surround
sound system (5.1- channel arrangement) is able to create at least five different locations.
Additional locations can be created by making use of a phantom image which can be
positioned between two or more channels. The impressions of distance is a result of
delayed sounds as well as reflections from both the recording and the influence of the
room. The impression of spaciousness and envelopment was introduced in section two
2.4. A surround-sound arrangement can create different sounds at both ears which leads
to the perceived apparent source width (ASW, see 2.4.1), spaciousness and envelopment
which are important for the listener in a home theater to perceive the feeling of being
in a different space. The different sounds occurring at both ears can be measured as the
interaural cross-correlation coefficient IACC, introduced in 2.4.4 and correlates with the
spatial descriptors. [10]
Figure 4.1 illustrates a surround sound arrangement with surround loudspeakers repro-
ducing delayed sounds of the front loudspeakers to yield the impression of distance and
envelopment. The thick dashed lines show the direct sound from the front sound stage
where most of the sound in movies comes from, while the impression of envelopment
will be caused by the surround sound channels. The figure also shows the additional
reflections from the opposite room surface beneficially contributing to the perceived spa-
ciousness. The front and rear wall contributions are ineffective in improving spaciousness
and can be avoided by applying absorption on front and rear wall. [10]
Figure 4.1: Improving the impression of distance and envelopment by the use of surround
sound channels and room reflections.
[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 8.6]
4.1 Using the Right Loudspeakers
The quality of the loudspeaker determines the sound quality in case of an acoustically
well designed room. Again, the room is not able to correct the performance of a poor

loudspeaker. Different frequency ranges (low, mid, high) should be delivered by dif-
ferent speakers due to avoid degraded sound quality especially in the low frequencies.
Therefore, a full-range loudspeaker (one diaphragm) is always a compromise and not
recommended.
4.1.1 Front Loudspeakers
In home theaters, front loudspeakers (L, C, R) are mainly used to deliver the speech
content of a movie. This requires the sound to be localized among the entire listening
area which will be achieved by well reproduced direct sounds within a horizontal angular
range of ±30◦ from conventional wide dispersion cone loudspeakers.
4.1.2 Center channel
A center loudspeaker covering the intermediate image between a stereo configuration

can improve the perceived sound notably if a broader listening sweet spot2 is desired.
A center channel also improves sound quality with no acoustical crosstalk3 . Figure 4.2
(a) illustrates the situation of a phantom center image and (b) with an additional center
loudspeaker. In (a) the left and right loudspeakers radiate identical sounds. Sound
quality suffers due to acoustical crosstalk and the intermediate sound image tends to
drift backward, behind the line of the left and right loudspeaker. The drift backward
seems to be reasonable since the impression of distance is dependent on early reflections,
which cover a longer distance until arriving at the listener. Figure 4.2 (b) shows only two
remaining reflections with improved sound quality. Nevertheless, Choisel (cited in Toole
121) found that a discrete center speaker causes less perceived spaciousness, listener
envelopment and a smaller apparent source width compared to a phantom center image.
[10]
In conclusion, a discrete center loudspeaker has pros and cons but in surround sound
where listener envelopment is created by the surround speakers it will not be necessary
for the center channel to contribute to lateral reflections. However, in a solo performance
this might not apply. A compromise has to be found.
4.2 Surround Channels
Surround sound channels are mostly used to generate a sound environment. They can
provide the impression of a broader sound image (ASW) as well as the feeling of being
surrounded by the sound field (LEV). The generated spatial impressions by the surround
loudspeakers are independent from the enclosure and is achieved by using proper delayed
(>80 ms) and level-adjusted sounds sent to each channel. In home theaters, absorption
is more effective at higher frequencies due to material thickness commonly used and
also as a consequence of room dimensions but eventually does not affect the desired
envelopment which comes from the low frequency range over which reflected sounds
2
an area with optimal listening conditions
3
sound from each loudspeaker combining at at each ear

Figure 4.2: Stereo loudspeaker arrangement (a) with two (b) and three loudspeakers.
[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 8.4]
contribute to this spatial effect. However, sound quality suffers due to an imbalance
in consequence of absorbing the frequency ranges partially. Hence, sound should be
absorbed at least down to the transition frequency in all frequency ranges to the same
degree. [10]
The requirements for surround channels delivering direct sound in equal quality to the
entire listening area are higher compared to the front speakers which can be explained by
the arrangement of the surround loudspeakers. A well reproduced direct sound within a
horizontal angular range of ±30◦ is therefore necessary. Nevertheless, conventional cone
loudspeakers which can be considered to be a point source are failing to cause equal sound
pressure levels at more than one seat. This can be explained by the reduction in level
of a spherical wave as it propagates away from a single point source. This level decrease
occurs with 6 dB per doubling of distance although in rooms with reflective surfaces it
may be less. The approaches to address this problem are limited. Line sources might be
one solution where sound declines at 3 dB per double-distance. And for increasing the
directivity index of this line source one might consider taking advantage of multiple point
sources arranged on a shaded curved line array. The curved line can also be achieved by
applying the right delays to each point source. [10]

4.2.1 Dipole Loudspeakers
Dipole loudspeakers consist either of one or two diaphragms that allow sound to radiate
in two directions, creating a directivity pattern of a figure eight with nulls looking side-
ways. This directivity pattern can either be realized by one diaphragm built in an open
baffle or by two diaphragms having one radiating to the front and a second diaphragm
emitting sound backward with reverse polarization. The directivity of this loudspeaker
is used that the nulls aim the side walls to prevent redundant lateral reflections. One
advantage of using a dipole loudspeaker is the little interaction with the room. Nev-
ertheless, a "dipole" needs the front/back wall reflections which should be avoided in
home theaters, therefore, the use as a surround loudspeaker is debatable among audio
professionals.
4.2.2 Subwoofer
Subwoofers are used to reproduce frequencies up to a crossover-frequency of usually 80

Hz. Frequencies below 80 Hz are impossible to locate by the listener due to the small
phase and time differences between both ears which are usually used to evaluate the
direction. Further, the wavelengths in this frequency range are long compared to the
dimensions of the subwoofer. Therefore, a subwoofer can be considered to to be an
omnidirectional radiator which has to be considered when it comes to the interaction
with room boundaries. Subwoofers can be used to compensate for a weak low frequency
performance especially by small bookshelf sized loudspeakers and for improving the room
acoustics through active room mode cancellation. The latter will be discussed in 3.4.
4.2.3 Bass Management
"Bass management" is the separation of low frequency content from a signal that is fed
to each loudspeaker in a surround sound set up by using a surround processor delivering
it to a low-frequency effect channel (LFE). This frequency content (below 80 Hz) is fed
then to the output of a subwoofer. The frequency at which the separation occurs is also
referred to as "crossover frequency".
4.3 Loudspeaker Arrangements
Loudspeaker placement has a great impact on the perceived sound in a home theater.
Regarding the discussed spatial descriptors, figure 4.3 shows the performance of several
loudspeaker arrangements while producing a recording of different sound fields made in
a lecture hall (A), and three concert halls (B-D). This test was conducted by Muraoka
and Nakazato (cited in Toole 2008) and shows that the commonly used loudspeaker
arrangement (i) in home theater surround sound reproduction has an overall good per-
formance in reproducing sound fields and moreover the recommended arrangement by
the "International Telecommunication Union" as described in ITU-R BS.775-3. [10]

Figure 4.3: Performance of Loudspeaker arrangements reproducing different sound fields.

Data from Muraoka and Nakazato (2007).
[2, From Toole, 2008, fig. 15.9]

4.4 Channel Numbering in Sound Reproduction
The common used designations for sound reproduction with two or more loudspeakers
are listed below:
h]section
System Front Ch. Surround Ch. Designation

Stereo L/R - 2/0
Dolby Stereo/Surround System L/C/R C 3/1
Surround Sound L/C/R L/R 3/2 also 5.1
Surround Sound L/C/R L/L/R/R 3/4
Table 1: Channel numbering in sound reproduction.
4.5 ITU-R BS.775-3 Surround Sound Recommendations
The Radio-communication sector of the "International Telecommunication Union" de-

veloped a recommendation in ITU-R BS.775-3 for a multichannel stereophonic sound
system with and without accompanying picture, updated in 2012 and will be discussed
in excerpts:
1. More surround channels are needed to broaden the sweet spot where all the listeners
are able to perceive similar envelopment. An even number of more than two should
be placed symmetrically at equal intervals.
2. Wide angular spacing between the left and right loudspeakers is required to achieve
optimal sound reproduction.
3. The base width (B) should stay within 2-3 m. Up to 5 m might be adequate with
respect to the room design.
4. In case of more than two surround channels, the left and right surround signals
(reduced in gain to avoid increased levels) should be directed to each of the rear-
side channels, respectively. De-correlated or delayed sounds might be necessary
for reasons of interference effects, perceived envelopment and de-localization. This
can be implemented in state-of-the-art 7.1 channel sound processors.
Figure 4.4 depicts the ITU recommendations for a 3/2 loudspeaker arrangement with
three front and two surround channels for home theaters with a HDTV screen. The
recommended front loudspeaker height is recommended for listeners seated at floor level.
A general rule can be given by Toole (2008) who states that front loudspeakers should
not be placed higher than about 60% of screen height with respect to the "ventriloquism
effect" which is the impression of sound emerging from a sound source somewhere on the
screen instead of a loudspeaker. The recommendation for placing the surround speakers
possibly higher than front speakers can be explained by the sound being therefore able
to radiate freely above the listeners to cause similar envelopment at the audience area.

Figure 4.4: Recommendations for a five channel arrangement

[7, From ITU-R BS.775-3, 2012, fig. 1]

Figure 4.5 shows the recommended arrangement for a 3/4 loudspeaker arrangement with
three front and four surround channels.
Figure 4.6 shows another loudspeaker arrangement recommended by Dolby. One sig-
nificant difference in this arrangement is the possibly decreased separation between the
front left/right speakers that can be favourable in sound reproduction for movies due to
viewing-angle considerations. [10]
Figure 4.5: Recommended seven channel arrangement by ITU.

[7, From ITU-R BS.775-3, 2012, fig. 2]

Figure 4.6: Recommended seven channel arrangement by Dolby.

[10, From Toole, 2008, fig. 15.11]

5 PRACTICAL EXAMPLE OF PLANNING A HOME CINEMA
5 Practical Example of Planning a Home Cinema
5.1 Optimum Room Dimensions
In acoustic theory literature, it is often referred to optimum room ratios in order to avoid
standing waves between parallel surfaces. Optimum room ratios might be something to
start with, but yet often not possible to apply due to already existing rooms in which
home theaters are commonly designed. Futhermore, Toole (2008) gives several reasons
why room dimensions are not of special interest in sound reproduction in rooms:
Rooms are not perfectly rectangular with perfectly reflecting flat walls
Room resonances are not equally important, see 2.10
Resonances are not equally energized by the loudspeakers
The audibility of resonances is always dependent on the listening position
5.2 Optimum Reverberation Time
Planning a listening space professionally, routinely starts with measuring the reverber-
ation time (RT) of the room. However, as already mentioned in 2.6, the sound field of
a room is not diffuse and therefore an optimum reverberation time does not apply to
the proper acoustic design of a home theater. Yet, it is a way to determine the speech
intelligibility in a room. A high reverberation time reduces the ability to understand
speech in a room and a low reverberation time results in making a room "uncomfort-
able" for the listener. It also may be unfavourable in case of ASW/image broadening
(see 2.7) since most of the sound in movies are delivers trough a single center speaker
in the front. In terms of speech intelligibility, a reverberations time within a range of
0.2-0.5 seconds may be a reasonable approach and most likely achieved through usual
home furnishing as shown in figure 3.5. However, this may not apply for designed home
theaters were there is no such usual home furnishing and in case of low frequency ab-
sorption. Anyway, one might get the message that reasonable reverberation times can
be obtained with little effort and little expenses. [10]
5.3 Optimum Viewing Angles and Distances
Figre 5.1 depicts the optimal viewing angles/distances dependent on current recom-
mendations and display resolutions. One can see that the HDTV format (1080p) is
favourable in case of viewing distances and also lies within the recommended viewing
angles. An optimum viewing height will about one third of the distance up the screen.
This can be achieved either by progressively elevated seating locations or by tilting the
back of a chair. [10]

Figure 5.1: Optimum seating arrangement for a given home theater.

[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 16.3]

5.4 Optimum Listening Position
Figure 5.2 illustrates a possible seating arrangement for a given home theater (7.3 m ×
6.1 m) with a screen width of 2.72 m. The prime listening location as recommended
by ITU-R BS.775-3 see 4.5 would be the center seat of the second row. One has
to note Small home theaters are limited in offering a favourable sound experience to
all the listeners if they are outside the sweet spot. The perception of envelopment
will be reduced as listeners move closer to a single surround loudspeaker and further
results in localization effects. Loudspeakers should be aimed towards the sweet spot
to deliver strong direct sound since they perform best on-axis. This also guarantees in
case of a broader listening area that more listeners are able to localize the reproduced
sound. correctly. Besides the recommendations on the listening position in terms of
the perceived envelopment and localization effects, one has to consider the influence
of loudspeakers on room resonances and therefore affecting the perceived sound in the
bass region. A listener located in a peak of a resonant frequency will thus experiencing
too much level at this particular frequency resulting in the perception of a boomy bass.
This can be addressed by moving the listener towards a pressure null which makes this
particular frequency inaudible for the listener. The desired amount of the perceived
sound level of the resonant frequency can be adjusted through a trial and error method
by moving the listener position between these two extremes. [10, 12]
5.5 Subwoofer Placement
Subwoofers can be placed at any location in the room. The influence of room boundaries
on the performance of a loudspeaker is significant as shown in 2.6.3. A subwoofer should
have enough power to ensure enough bass without spatial variances throughout the
listening area. This can be achieved either by choosing a proper sized subwoofer, a
reasonable amount of subwoofers or by making use of the adjacent room boundary effect.
Placing a subwoofer in the corner of a room can result in increased sound pressure levels
up to 18 dB for which a subwoofer needs to bring in 60 times more power-output to
make up for this increase in sound level. Therefore, it is a reasonable way to start with
subwoofer placement in a room corner and then applying proper equalization. This
starting situation will also unburden the performance of the subwoofer and eventually
result in a lower distortion at higher sound levels. [11]
5.6 Room Optimizer
Computerized room optimization in home theaters is currently implemented in state-of-

the-art surround sound processors. A practical example for computerized loudspeaker
and listener positioning can be given by the software program "Room Optimizer" which
was developed in 1997. This program allows to compute the optimum locations for
loudspeakers and listeners within a certain area which can be defined by the user. The
optimization is performed by the simplex algorithm that is a mathematic optimization
procedure using numerical approximation. The suggestions for optimum listening posi-
tions are based on the minimum standard deviation of a combined short- and long-term

Figure 5.2: Optimum seating arrangement for a given home theater.

[10, From Toole F. E., 2008, fig. 16.5]

spectrum. The spectra are obtained by using the image source model. Furthermore, a
cost parameter based on the standard deviation function indicates the deviation of the
optimized frequency response from a flat frequency response and thus characterizes the
quality of the optimized spectrum perceived at the listening location.
5.6.1 Theory Behind the Room Optimizer
The program combines a room prediction model (image source model) with the simplex
method which therefore has the advantage taking the sound field into consideration with
its various reflections from all surfaces in the room. The image source model replaces
surfaces reflections with all potential image sources for the listener. The resulting room
response is obtained in the time-domain and only consists of the contributing images.
The incident sound at the listening location is then the propagating image source wave
to the listener attenuated by the propagation loss and the absorption coefficients of the
contributing room boundaries. The model is most effective in rooms with with solid
surfaces since the image source model does not predict possible phase changes of reflec-
tions. Scattering effects are not of interest in the low frequencies and can be neglected.
Finally a Fourier transformation of the predicted impulse response in the time-domain
gives the spectrum at the listing location.
Furthermore, an additional short term spectrum is computed which is motivated by the
perception of transient signals in rooms. The audio content in home theaters consists
of various transient signals which tend to mask later reflections and therefore only the
early reflections become audible for the listener. The short-term spectrum is obtained
by a Fourier transform of the first 64 ms of the impulse response after the arrival of the
direct sound. Figure 5.3 illustrates the iterative optimization process to determine the
optimum listener and loudspeaker locations. The upper picture represents the trial lo-
cations which are within the possible positions for loudspeakers and listener. The limits
for the loudspeaker and listening area within the optimization operates can be chosen
by the user. The trial locations move around the given areas until a reasonable result is
obtained determined by an error parameter. The number of loudspeakers that have to
be optimized is reduced to a minimum of "independent loudspeakers". This means that
due mirror symmetries and displacement relationships, the positions of several loud-
speakers in a surround sound arrangement are dependent on the so called "independent
loudspeaker". [3]
5.7 Acoustically Transparent Projection Screens
Most domestic rooms have limited space and the arrangement of loudspeakers in home
theaters can be challenging. An acoustically transparent screen can be an useful device to
allow loudspeaker placements with less restrictions as loudspeakers can be placed behind
the screen. Acoustically transparent screens are characterized by allowing sound to per-
meate the screen with negligible transmission losses. The wall behind the screen should
be treated with absorbing material which prevents front-wall reflections and therefore
results in improved image localization and reduced sound coloration. [10]

Figure 5.3: Optimization procedure in an iterative cylcle.

[4, From EVEREST F.A. POHLMANN Ken C., 2009, fig. 25-9]

5.8 Home Theater Design Example
The following discusses an example layout of a home theater for 6 listeners with respect
to the previous discussed recommendations. A 3/4 surround sound system was chosen
and simulated in the acoustic simulation program Catt-Acoustic. The room dimensions
are 8 m × 7 m × 2.8 m thus leading to a volume of 156.8 m3 . The design goals for this
scenario are as follows:
Average reverberation time within 0.2-0.5 seconds for reasons of speech intelligi-
bility
Strong delivered direct sounds to every listener
Good viewing angles and listening distance with respect to the screen size
Smooth low frequency behaviour inside the room with little seat to seat variations
Finding the optimum subwoofer locations for room mode control with an arrange-
ment comprising the least amount of subwoofer possible to get reasonable results
Proper surface treatments with respect to reverberation time, speech intelligibility
and image broadening
5.8.1 Absorption Design Goal
A reverberation time of around 0.2 seconds was desired. The approximate amount of
absorption needed to achieve the desired reverberation time can be calculated by using
the Sabine equation:
0.161V
RT60 = (5.1)
A
RT60 ....................reverberation time [s]

V .........................volume of room [m]
A.........................total absorption of room [sabins]
Thus, the amount of absorption can be calculated as:
0.161V 0.161 × 156.8

A= = = 126.2 sabins (effective absorbing area) (5.2)
RT60 0.2
This obtained absorption value has to be achieved in each octave band and might lead
to the desired reverberation time of 0.2 seconds.

5.8.2 Room Mode Calculation
The frequency range where room modes are dominating is below the Schroeder frequency
and can be obtained by using the following formula to calculate the crossover frequency
between the discrete room modes and the irregular spaced higher frequencies:
r r
T 0.35
fc = 2000 = 2000 = 94.5Hz (5.3)
V 156.8
The crossover frequency fc defines a transition zone and will not be a definite limit.
The Calculation of the Schroeder frequency is based on reasonable reverberation times,
a diffuse sound field, and an unobstructed interior. [10] This leads to an error in the
calculation since these requirements will not apply for small rooms. The dominance of
room modes will most likely be higher than the calculated 94.5 Hz.
The axial room modes up to the crossover frequency are listed in table 2.
Axial Mode Resonances

Room Mode Order Length [Hz] Width [Hz] Height [Hz]
f1 22 24 60
f2 43 49 120
f3 65 73
f4 86 97
f5 108 123
f6 129
Table 2: Axial room modes of home theater.
Figure 5.4 illustrates the the room mode distribution for the first four mode orders.
The first and third order room modes will not be problematic for listeners approaching
the null of this modes. This will be the case at seated ear height of ± 1.4 m whereas
the second order room mode shows its pressure peak and has to be addressed by other
means.
The average axial mode spacing is around 9.2 Hz with a standard deviation of 5.58 Hz.
This may be considered to be a close mode spacing and also might result in an overall
smoother frequency response due to overlapping room modes. A room mode exhibits a
resonance curve with a certain bandwidth that is dependent on the reverberation time
of a room. The bandwidth of a room resonance can be calculated by using the following
expression:
2.2
Bandwidth = f2 − f1 = [Hz] (5.4)
RT60
where reverberation times of 0.2 to 0.5 seconds will cause room resonances with a band-
width ranging from 4.4 to 11 Hz, leading to the conclusion that the bandwidth of the

Figure 5.4: Room mode scenario including the first four mode orders. Illustration tool
from Toole.
resonance peak increases with lower reverberation times. A scheme of overlapping room
modes is illustrated in figure 5.5. It can be seen that the several overlapping resonances
cause an overall sound pressure contour which is dependent on the overlapping mode
bandwidth. Whereby resulting narrow dips can be neglected since they are less notice-
able as concluded by Buchlein (cited in Toole 445). Another effect of mode overlapping
has to be considered in terms of room mode interaction. The excitation of one resonance
will force adjacent room modes into excitation which results in an energy boost within
a wider frequency range.
5.8.3 Listening Distance and Viewing Angle
The listening distance for the listeners in the first row is 4 meters. In case of an audible
resonance of the first and third order length mode at 21.5 Hz and 44.5 Hz, respectively.
This might prevent the listener to hear excessive loudness due to being located in the
null of the corresponding modes. The second row is seated at 5.5 meters which is still a
favourable location regarding those resonances. A state of the art 1920 × 1080 pixel 16:9
high definition display was chosen. With respect to the listening distance, the screen
dimensions are 2.35 m × 1.32 m which provides a viewing angle of around 30° and
ensures that listeners seated 4 m away from the screen are able to see the full benefit of
a HDTV.

Figure 5.5: Room mode overlapping scheme.

[4, EVEREST F.A. POHLMANN Ken C. (Eds.), 2009, fig.13-12]
5.8.4 Loudspeaker Arrangement
A 3/4 surround sound set up was aligned according to the ITU-R BS.775-3 recom-
mendations for a seven channel arrangement. All loudspeakers are at least one meter
far from any adjacent room boundary to avoid loudspeaker-room interactions since the
loudspeakers used in this example The front soundstage comprises a center channel and
two loudspeakers aligned at ± 30° to the 0° center. The base width between the front
left/right speakers is 2 m. Four surround loudspeakers are chosen to ensure envelopment
to a broader listening area whereas two surround channels are located at ± 60° and an
additional pair of rear speakers are arranged at ± 135°. The rear side channels are
delayed to provide additional decorrelation among the surround channels. The height of
the front soundstage is 1.2 m. The surround loudspeakers are tilted towards the listeners
and placed at 1.4 m above floor level. The inclination is optional according to ITU-R
BS.775-3. The higher placed surround speakers ensure a better unobstructed sound ra-
diation thus leading to a better envelopment for the listeners.
The subwoofer crossover frequency was set to 125 Hz because of adjustment possibilities
limited to octave bands in Catt-acoustic. Usually the crossover frequency should be
set to 80 Hz due to localization effects above 80 Hz and yet allows the subwoofer to
be placed independently from the other speakers at any location where a smooth low
frequency performance can be ensured.
In case of program material including a low frequency effect channel (LFE) one might
consider to set the gain for the LFE-channel 10 dB higher compared to the other channels
to obtain more power in the low end which can be favourable due to the special low fre-
quency sound effects that are reproduced through this channel. Although the measured
output level will possibly be only around 4 dB more due to the narrower bandwidth of

this channel. [19, 20]

The operational sound pressure level of each of the 3/4 surround sound channels at the
distance of 1 m was set to 80 dB. Considering the combined levels of seven incoherent
sound sources will therefore result in approximately 88.5 dB. However, due to propaga-
tion loss over distance the sound declines at 6 dB per double distance for a point source.
Therefore, the level at the listening area (2 m far from the source) will be lower than
88.5 dB but may decline at a lower rate in a room due to wall reflections. The level
alignment of each of the channels should be performed by using band limited (200 Hz -
20 kHz; 20 - 120 Hz for the subwoofer) pink noise as a test signal. The test signal has
to be set to -18 dBFs and fed to each channel of the reproduction system. Thus, the
gain of each channel has to be adjusted so that each channel causes the following sound
pressure level Lr ef at the listening location: [20]
Lr ef = 85 − 10log(n) ± 0.25[dBA] (5.5)
where n is the number of channels. This results in a sound pressure level of 76.5 dB (1
m) for each channel in a 3/4 surround sound set up thus leading to a combined level of
85 dB (1 m) in case of seven channels performing simultaneously.
Furthermore, reasonable listening levels in home theaters are given by Beusch (cited
in Newell, Holland 7, see figure 5.6). This recommendation can be seen as a guiding
principle dependent on the screen size and the listening distance.
5.8.5 Surface Treatments
Toole (2008) gives some useful design goals for surface treatments in a home theater
which will be discussed in the following.
Care has to be taken if wall surfaces are treated acoustically different as this may
lead into undesirable flutter echoes. Flutter echoes are easy to address by absorbers
or diffusers since they are a high frequency issue. Domestic rooms most likely create
flutter echoes nevertheless, as mentioned in earlier in 2.7, reflections from different
directions have the ability to prevent isolated sounds or interference dips and hence
become possibly less/not audible. Moreover, typical home furnishing can disturb
reflections through their capability of scattering incidental sounds and therefore
preventing them from bouncing between the walls.
Front and rear walls do not add any convenient value to sound reproduction in
home theaters in terms of spatial perception, since these reflections are only time
delayed versions of the direct sound. It will be advantageous to apply absorption
or diffusion material on the rear walls.
The front side wall reflections can be treated optional. Either absorptive or dif-
fusive elements can be applied to treat those reflections. However, since the center
channel is the most important channel in movies in terms of speech reproduction,

Figure 5.6: Recommended theater calibration level at the two-third distance from the
screen dependent on screen-size/distance.
[16, NEWELL, HOLLAND, et al., 2008, fig. 4, data from Beusch]
it might be supportive to leave the front side wall blank to allow the creation of im-
age broadening for the center channel. The front lateral reflections will become less
influential and will be masked in case of simultaneous loudspeaker performance.
The influence of these reflections on the spatial perception was discussed in 4.1.2.
If the first side-wall reflections should be attenuated one has to consider to do so
across the whole spectrum. A degraded sound quality will be the result if only
parts of the spectrum are addressed.
The space between the surround loudspeakers can be treated with diffusers to
contribute to the creation of envelopment and thus covering a broader listening
area and most effective if placed at ear height. As depicted in 2.1, the creation
of envelopment is caused by the lower and lower mid frequencies. This leads to
a design goal for diffusers regarding their depth. In case of engineered diffusive
surfaces like a Schroedinger diffuser, a depth of 0.2 m should be considered and a
depth of 0.3 m for geometric shapes.
The lower area of the side walls between floor and surround channels can also be
treated optional since their contributing reflections will probably be redirected to
the floor or the chairs which tend to be absorptive materials.

The ceiling does not contribute to any valuable spatial perception and should be
treated with absorbent elements like perforated ceiling panels and thus contributes
to low frequency absorption.
A possible surface layout for the home theater design example with respect to the dis-
cussed surface treatments is shown in figure 5.7 and discussed below.
The floor is covered with a carpet on a felt underlay. The underlay increases the
absorption down to the low frequencies
The ceiling consists of a micro perforated panel acting as a broadband absorber.
The front and rear walls are mostly absorbing over the whole frequency range.
The side walls are treated with polycylindrical absorber/diffuser intermixed with
absorbing and reflecting surfaces. The absorbing materials are staggered so that
opposite walls fail to cause flutter echoes. The polys comprise a semi-cylindrical
geometric shape, are 0.3 m deep and placed at short distances between them ex-
tending from floor to ceiling. The cavity behind the polys are filled with absorbent
material to increase low frequency absorption. The diffusive shape is dispersing the
sound horizontally and support the surround loudspeaker performance by creating
the listener envelopment. The front side wall reflections are left untreated since
they will not degrade the sound towards the listener. They are rather supportive
in an isolated performance of the center channel which is commonly the case in
the program material of movies .
The corners of the room are left untreated since good results are already obtained
by the introduced surface treatments and the supportive subwoofer placement in
terms of room mode cancellation.
Table 3 lists the absorption coefficients for each surface, the associated effective absorb-
ing areas in sabins and the reverberation times (RT) for the acoustically untreated and
the acoustically designed home theater with proper spaced absorbent as well as diffu-
sive materials, respectively. In either scenario, the home theater was equipped with the
moderate absorbent screen and chairs.
The absorption coefficients of the chair are representing leather chairs which are com-
monly used in home theaters. the panel absorber is 20 cm deep with damping material
placed inside the air cavity. The damping material behind the panel improves absorption
down to the low frequencies. The HDTV screen is quite absorbent especially for higher
frequencies and the listeners are introducing a non negligible amount of absorption. The
scattering coefficients are assumed to be 10% for an average object in each octave band
and are applied to most of the surfaces. The listeners usually have a high degree of
diffusing property and is assumed to be 30% at 125 Hz ascending to 80% at 4 kHz. The
scattering coefficients for the diffusers placed at the side walls are estimated by the 2D
Lambert diffusion model for a scattering object which is 0.4 m deep.
RT (Untreated) makes clear that it was necessary to bring in additional absorbing area
of around 100 sabins to achieve the approximate target reverberation time of 0.2 seconds.

Figure 5.7: Layout of a home theater with properly spaced passive absorption and scat-
tering devices to perform most effectively. Green: Polycylindrical diffuser
(0,3 m deep), Brown: Broadband absorber (0.3 m deep). As discussed be-
fore, the absorbers are staggered to prevent flutter echoes caused by opposite
walls.

Surfaces 125 Hz 250 Hz 500 Hz 1 kHz 2 kHz 4 kHz [%]

Drywall 10 8 5 3 3 3
Wood 15 11 10 7 6 7
Listener 10 21 41 65 75 71
Chair 20 25 29 31 29 25
Screen 10 10 20 20 50 50
Introduced absorbent materials
Ceiling 85 90 99 95 85 70
Carpet 8 24 57 69 71 73
Panel absorber 90 99 99 99 99 99
Diffuser 40 55 40 22 20 20
Sabins (Untreated) 23 19 16 12 13 13
RT (Untreated) 1.1 1.33 1.62 2.08 1.97 1.93 [s]
Sabins (Designed) 91 109 126 125 121 113
RT (Designed) 0.28 0.23 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.22 [s]
Table 3: Absorption coefficients, sabins and reverberation times.
5.9 Home Theater Design Simulation Results
The simulation in Catt-Acoustic was performed with a 3/4 loudspeaker arrangement

and four subwoofers. The 3/4 arrangement is composed of seven "Genelec 6010A" com-
pact two-way active loudspeakers supported by four "Community VLF2008" dual 8-inch
slot-loaded micro subwoofers for the low end. The Genelec speakers are recommended
for rooms with a volume up to 55 m2 . The subwoofer is The loudspeaker data were
obtained through the Common Loudspeaker Format (CLF) and are defining the source
specifications in the simulation program. Figure 5.8 depicts the layout of the acoustically
untreated home theater. The interior includes the HDTV screen, the 3/4 arrangement
excluding the subwoofers and the audience (01-06) seated in two rows at 3.5 and 5 m,
respectively. The frontstage consists of source A0 -A3 and the surround speakers are rep-
resented by A4 -A5 and A7A8 . The 3/4 loudspeaker performance is extended down to the
low frequencies since there are no subwoofers in this example. The results of the acoustic
simulation for the untreated home theater are discussed starting with figure 5.9. Not
much has to be said regarding the reverberation time. The A-weighted reverberation
time (marked by the thin red circle) is around 1.5 seconds. This value is far from the
design goal of around 0.2 seconds. Speech intelligibility will be poor and flutter echoes
as well as room resonances will be audible over a wide frequency range caused by the
opposite hard reflecting drywalls. The red and blue lines in the following graphs are
based on energy or impulse response (pressure) predictions, respectively.
The frequency response measured at listener location 02 is the result of the performance
of seven loudspeakers in the untreated home theater and plotted in figure 5.10.
The introduced sound pressure level by each loudspeaker was 80 dB. The simultaneous
performance of seven incoherent loudspeakers at 1 kHz will therefore result in an in-
creased sound pressure level of about 88.5 dB. Figure 5.11 depicts the SPL as a function
of frequency. It is obvious that the sound pressure below 1 kHz increased due to wall

Figure 5.8: Layout of the acoustically untreated home theater with a 3/4 loudspeaker
arrangement.
Figure 5.9: The bold red and blue lines show the reverberation time for the acousti-
cally untreated room, measured at the sweet spot (listener 02) of the 3/4
arrangement. The reverberation times by Sabine and Eyring are included
for reference.

Figure 5.10: The Schroeder frequency for a reverberation time of 1.5 seconds and the
room volume of 156.8 m3 sets a transition at around 196 Hz. This is obvi-
ously a good match as can be seen by the large pressure variations in the low
frequencies up to 250 Hz due to resonances where the room dimensions and
loudspeaker positions are dominating the frequency response. The large
undulations above 250 Hz are due to the interference of many different re-
flections at different times. The region above the transition zone can be
neglected since we are not able to hear these undulations as audible effects.
[10]

reflections resulting in higher levels compared to the direct sound. The decrease above
1 kHz will be mostly influenced by the loudspeaker performance by failing to excite the
room as much as in the low frequencies due to its directivity and the introduced absorp-
tion by the audience and, hence, becoming more influential for the higher frequencies.
Figure 5.11: Sound pressure level as a function of frequency.
A strong direct sound was one of the objectives for surround sound reproduction. This
can be explained by the listener envelopment which has to be created by the surround
loudspeakers and will be most effective in case of a strong direct sound at the listening
area. Figure 5.12 and figure 5.13 show the direct sound for the 250 Hz frequency band at
the listening area for a 3/2 and a 3/4 surround sound arrangement scenario, respectively.
No difference between the five channel and the seven channel arrangement has been
found. The more ore less 2 dB difference between the seats are due to propagation loss.
The higher sound pressure level in figure 5.13 for the seven channel arrangement can be
explained by the combined levels of seven incoherent sound sources. The seat to seat
variations could not be addressed by conventional cone loudspeakers where reproduced
sound levels will drop by approximately 3 to 6 dB per double distance. The options to
address this issue are limited. However, one possible solution will be using a line array
comprising several loudspeakers that reproduce a cylindrical wave instead of a spherical
wave thus resulting in a drop of less than 3 dB per double distance.
Figure 5.14 depicts the sound pressure distribution at the adjacent room boundaries for
the 1 kHz frequency band. It is obvious that the diffusive elements are hit by the direct
sounds of the surround sound channels and, hence, are most effective in diffusing the
sound if placed at this at this surface areas.
Figure 5.15 depicts the level distribution of the reflected sounds on each mapping area
of the room surfaces. The reflections from the diffusers still have good levels in order to

Figure 5.12: Direct sound at the listening area for a 3/2 surround sound arrangement
for several listening positions. Mapping area is 0.49 m.
Figure 5.13: Direct sound at the listening area for a 3/4 surround sound arrangement
for several listening positions. Mapping area is 0.49 m.

Figure 5.14: Sound pressure distribution of incidental sound at adjacent room bound-
aries. Shown for frequency of 1 kHz. The orange mapping areas at the side
wall show an incident sound pressure level of around 78 dB. For comparison
of the levels of the reflected sounds see figure 5.15.
ensure a high early lateral energy fraction which will most likely result in creating the
apparent source width of the surround sound channels.
5.9.1 Acoustically Designed Home Theater
The following simulation results of the acoustically designed home theater are discussed
for the sweet spot (listener 02) of a 3/4 surround sound arrangement including a four
subwoofer arrangement as depicted in figure 5.16. However, most of the acoustic objec-
tive parameters that are obtained by measurements at the sweet spot are representative
for the rest of the listeners. In terms of the low frequency response, this might not
apply and will be discussed additionally where applicable. Starting with figure 5.17,
the A-weighted reverberation time with the additional introduced absorbing areas could
be lowered to 0.35 seconds. This value fulfills the objective to stay within 0.2-0.5 sec-
onds and ensures good speech intelligibility especially for the center channel during the
performance of multiple loudspeakers.
The early reverberation time is plotted in figure 5.18 and shows a better correlation
with the perceived reverberation time due to the masking of the weaker part of the
decay during music or speech reproduction.
The parameter center time is graphed in figure 5.19. It is reasonable that the low
reverberation time leads to a low center time thus resulting in a high clarity since most
of the sound energy is centered in the first 4 ms.

Figure 5.15: Sound pressure distribution of reflected sound at adjacent room boundaries.
Shown for frequency of 1 kHz. The orange mapping areas at the side wall
represent a level of around 77 dB.
The speech transmission index (STI) was calculated by using the test signal IEC Male
Ed3 according to IEC 60268-16. The obtained modulation transfer index (MTI) is a
measure of speech intelligibility and ranges between 0 and 1. The speech intelligibility
increases with ascending values. Figure 5.20 gives the MTI for the well designed home
theater. The speech intelligibility is excellent and is independent of the given background
noise.
The mean absorption in the well designed home theater can be obtained from figure 5.21.
It shows a steady amount of absorption over a wide frequency range, slightly descending
at the low end. This is desired to avoid degraded sound quality due to uneven absorption
in different frequency ranges.
The clarity for speech is given in figure 5.22. Due to the low reverberation time it is clear
that there is a great contribution of acoustic energy in the early part of the reflections
within the first 50 ms.
Due to symmetry, the parameters LEF and IACC will be similarly caused by certain
channels for listener 02. An example would be the front-right/front-left or rear surround-
left/right channels. Therefore, just one representative result will be given.
The lateral energy fraction for the left-front channel and the left-front surround channel
perceived at listening location 02 is plotted in figure 5.23 and figure 5.24, respectively.
The apparent source width is mostly influenced by high level lateral reflections within
the first 80 ms in the frequency range from 500 Hz to 10 kHz. The lateral energy fraction
shows good values for both sound sources ranging between 10 and 20 % compared to

Figure 5.16: Layout of the home theater design example equipped with a 3/4 channel
surround sound arrangement and four properly spaced subwoofers with re-
spect to little seat to seat variations at low frequencies among the entire
listening area.

Figure 5.17: The reverberation time as a function of frequency. The A-weighted rever-
beration time is marked by the thin red circle.
Figure 5.18: The early decay time as a function of frequency. The A-weighted early decay
time is marked by the thin red circle and is approximately 0.19 seconds that
is 0.16 seconds lower than the A-weighted reverberation time.

Figure 5.19: Center time.
Figure 5.20: Speech intelligibility in the acoustically designed home theater.

Figure 5.21: Mean absorption of the acoustically designed home theater.
Figure 5.22: Clarity for speech in the first 50 ms.

the entire sound field.
Figure 5.23: Lateral energy fraction with respect to sound reproduction by the right-
front channel.
The interaural cross correlation (IACC) at listening location 02 with respect to center
channel sound reproduction is plotted in figure 5.25. The perfect symmetry of the lateral
reflections caused by the center channel is resulting in a low value of the lateral energy
fraction. The dip around 1 kHz can be explained by the head dimensions (about 17
cm) that is half a wavelength of the 1 kHz and thus shows high decorrelation for that
frequency.
The IACC for listener 02 is plotted in figure 5.26 with respect to the sound reproduction
from the left-front surround channel. The high correlation in the low frequencies can
be explained by their large wavelengths therefore showing little pressure difference at
the two ears. The IACC shows reasonable values above 2 kHz regarding the creation
of listener envelopment. The IACC can be increased by additional decorrelated and
delayed sounds, introduced in the signal path.
The obtained values of IACC and the LEF are useful to get an idea about the reflections
from reproduced sounds inside the home theater. However, they are no final indicator
how well the surround sound arrangement will perform. Furthermore, it will be the task
especially for the surround channels to create listener envelopment and spaciousness.
5.10 Optimum Subwoofer Arrangement
Optimum subwoofer arrangements with respect to room mode cancellation were dis-
cussed in section 3. Several recommended subwoofer arrangements were given by Welti

Figure 5.24: Lateral energy fraction with respect to sound reproduction by the left-front
surround channel.
Figure 5.25: Interaural cross correlation at listening location 02 with respect to center
channel sound reproduction.

Figure 5.26: Interaural cross correlation at listening location 02 with respect to front left
channel sound reproduction.
(see figure 3.7) whereas four of them are applied and discussed for this specific home
theater design example. Furthermore, additional subwoofer arrangements were investi-
gated in order to achieve an optimum low frequency response to provide little seat to
seat variations among the listening area. The investigated subwoofer arrangements are
depicted in figure 5.27.
The frequency response for each subwoofer arrangement is plotted in figure 5.28. The fre-
quency response is depicted up to 500 Hz. Since the crossover frequency of the subwoofers
was set to 125 Hz, the room mode cancellation by means of the subwoofer arrangement
will only be effective up to 125 Hz. Moreover, according to the calculated Schroeder
frequency for this home theater, room modes are dominating the frequency response up
to 95 Hz but will most likely be higher, as discussed in 5.8.2. For comparison, figure 5.28
(i) shows the frequency response of a 3/4 full-range loudspeaker arrangement without
subwoofers. The scenario without subwoofers shows large level difference between the
20-63 Hz frequency band and the 63-125 Hz frequency band. The subwoofer arrange-
ment in (a) and (e) create the smoothest low-frequency response up to 125 Hz and hence
cause little seat to seat variations among the entire listening area. However, the four
subwoofer arrangement at the 25% distances to each wall will be superior in attenuating
the first three orders of room modes and in producing a tight bass with good levels.
The single subwoofer in (a) provides good results for listener 02 but will not be able
to provide that frequency response to several listeners. Hence. seat-to-seat variations
will remain. Moreover, the combination of more than one subwoofer reduces the chance
for driving one subwoofer into distortion. Eventually, figure 5.29 gives the frequency
responses for additional listening locations in order to compare for the seat-to-seat vari-

(a) Subwoofer A5 (located (b) Subwoofer A5, A6 (lo- (c) Subwoofer A5, A6, A6,
at 25% width and 50% cated at front and back B1 (located at room cor-
length). wall, respectively). ners).
(d) Subwoofer A5, A6 (lo- (e) Subwoofer A5, A6, A6, (f) Subwoofer A5, A6,
cated at 25% room- B1 (located at 25% A6, B1 (located at
width and 50% room- room-width and 25% 25% room-width and
length). room-length). front/back wall).
(g) Subwoofer A5 (located (h) Subwoofer A5 (located

center of side wall). at center of front wall).
Figure 5.27: Several possible subwoofer arrangements for the design example.

ations. In (a) the frequency response at listening location 02 allows comparison with the
frequency response in figure 5.28 (i) and confirms the fact that seat-to-seat variations are
prominent for the 3/4 channel arrangement without subwoofers. In (b) and (c) one can
see the frequency response for the four subwoofer arrangement located at the 25% wall
distances for listener 01 and listener 05, respectively. Further explanations are needed
in order to understand these graphs regarding the seat-to-seat variations. Although it
is not obvious at first sight, seat-to-seat variations could have been minimized. The
narrow dips in the frequency response can be explained by the listeners being located at
the pressure minima of a room mode. The four subwoofer arrangement located at the
25% wall distances are only effective in room mode attenuation for the first three order
with and length modes and thus failing to attenuate higher order room modes as well
as height modes. Keeping that in mind will help to understand the conclusions that are
drawn as follows. In (b), listener 01 is located at 4.5 m of the room width thus seated
in a pressure null of the fourth order room mode corresponding to 98.4 Hz. The dip in
at around 63 Hz in (b) may be explained by the ear height of listener 05 who is seated
in the second row and located at 1.4 m above floor level and thus located 0.2 m higher
than listeners in the front row. The first order height room mode corresponds to 61.5
Hz and has its pressure minimum at 1.4 m and therefore interacting with the ear height
of listener 05. Nevertheless, narrow dips in the frequency response will not be problem-
atic for the perceived sound quality. Eventually the overall sea-to-seat variations could
have been minimized by using the four subwoofer arrangement located at the 25% wall
distances.

(a) Subwoofer A5 (located (b) Subwoofer A5, A6 (lo- (c) Subwoofer A5, A6, A6,
at 25% width and 50% cated at front and back B1 (located at room
length). wall, respectively). corners).
(d) Subwoofer A5, A6 (lo- (e) Subwoofer A5, A6, A9, (f) Subwoofer A5, A6,
cated at 25% room- B1 (located at 25% A9, B1 (located at
width and 50% room- room-width and 25% 25% room-width and
length). room-length). front/back wall).
(g) Subwoofer A5 (located (h) Subwoofer A5 (located (i) 3/4 ch. arrangement
center of side wall). at center of front wall). (full-range, no subs).
Figure 5.28: Frequency responses of each subwoofer arrangement.

(a) at listening location 01, (b) at listening location 01, (c) at listening location 05,
3/4 channel arrange- 4 subwoofers (located 4 subwoofer (located at
ment (full-range, no at 25% room-width and 25% room-width and
subwoofers). 25% room-length). 25% room-length).
Figure 5.29: Frequency responses at different listening locations for comparison.

6 CONCLUSIONS
6 Conclusions
Conclusions have been drawn throughout the text. However, a brief summary of what
was discussed and results of the acoustic simulation in CATT-Acoustic will be given in
the following.
Reasonable absorption in domestic rooms can be caused by surfaces such as carpets,
curtains and perforated acoustical ceilings as well as objects like chairs, sofas, tables
or closets, which are absorbing and at the same time scattering to sound. Therefore,
acceptable reverberation times can be achieved in order to provide speech intelligibil-
ity. The importance of the perceived spaciousness was discussed and will mostly be
created by the surround loudspeakers. Loudspeaker arrangements with respect to cur-
rent recommendations were shown. The interaction of loudspeakers with the room is of
great interest when it comes to listener locations in home theaters and can be addressed
by appropriate loudspeaker placement. There is a transition zone between the discrete
room modes in the low frequencies and the irregular spaced higher frequencies. Properly
absorption either passive or active can address the problematic room modes below the
transition frequency. The overlapping room modes above the transition frequency will
not be audible and will rather result in a smooth frequency response. Possible options
for passive and active acoustic control were shown and discussed. The influence of differ-
ent subwoofer arrangements on room mode attenuation was introduced in section 3 and
several arrangements were applied to the home theater design example in section 5. This
home theater was designed for six listeners and includes a seven channel surround sound
system, a HDTV screen, properly spaced passive absorbers as well as a four subwoofer
arrangement. The HDTV screen size was chosen in order to provide good viewing angles
for the two rows with listeners. The passive absorbers were uniformly distributed and
staggered to prevent flutter echoes. This also made sure to achieve similar absorption
and a steady reverberation time over the entire frequency range. A surface mapping of
the room showed where diffusive elements will be most effective in order to redirect the
incident sounds from the surround channels. Strong delivered direct sounds for every
listener was required and could have been achieved with additional surround loudspeak-
ers. Several acoustic parameters were depicted and discussed like speech intelligibility,
clarity and center time which are excellent and are mostly due to the low reverberation
time. The Lateral energy fraction is moderate for certain loudspeakers. However, this
will be compensated by the surround sound system. The result of different subwoofer
arrangements with respect to room mode attenuation were discussed. For this design
example it was found that the four subwoofer arrangement at the 25% wall distances
was superior compared to other arrangements. This home theater design example can
be applied to any domestic listening room with rectangular shape. However, the low
frequency response will change and room modes will shift to different frequencies. Nev-
ertheless, the four subwoofer arrangement will provide room mode cancellation up to
the third order room mode at both length and width and may provide similar results in
terms of small seat-to-seat variations.

7 REFERENCES
7 References
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BassOptimization.html
[9] NOXON Arthur, "Listening Room-Corner Loaded Bass Trap", October 1985, Re-
trieved from http://www.asc-hifi.com/articles/listening-room.pdf
[10] TOOLE Floyd E., "Sound Reproduction"-Loudspeakers and Rooms, Oxford: Fo-
cal Press, 2008
[11] TOOLE Floyd E., "Loudspeakers and Rooms- Working Together", April 1997 (rev
1999), p. 15, Retrieved from http://www.harmanaudio.com/all_about_audio/
loudspeakers_rooms.pdf
[12] TOOLE Floyd E., "The Acoustical Design of Home Theaters", 1999, p.,
Retrieved from http://www.harmanaudio.com/all_about_audio/acoustical_
design.pdf
[13] TOOLE Floyd E., DEVANTIER Allan, "In-Room Low Frequency Optimization",
115th Convention, J. Audio Eng. Soc., Preprint 5942, 2003
[14] WELTI Todd, DEVANTIER Allan, "Low-Frequency Optimization Using Multiple
Subwoofers", J. Audio Eng. Soc., 54, 2006, pp. 347-364

7 REFERENCES
[15] VIGRAN Tor Erik, "Building Acoustics", London: Taylor Francis Routledge,
2008
[16] NEWELL, HOLLAND, et al., "New Proposals for the Calibration of Sound in
Cinema Rooms", 130th Convention, J. Audio Eng. Soc., Preprint 8383, 2011
[17] ELEN Richard, "The Gentle Art of Room Correction", 2003, Retrieved from
https://www.meridian-audio.com/w_paper/Room_Correction_scr.pdf
[18] ADAM J. Hill, Hawksford Malcom O. J., "Wide-Area Psychoacoustic Correction
for Problematic Room-Modes Using Nonlinear Bass Synthesis", J. Audio Eng.
Soc., 59, 2011, pp. 825-834
[19] SSF-01-1/2002 "Hörbedingungen und Wiedergabanordnungen für Mehrkanal-
Sterefonie", 2002, Retrieved from http://www.tonmeister.de/foren/surround/
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from http://www.tonmeister.de/foren/surround/texte/SSF_02_2002.PDF

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Room Acoustics in Home Theaters

Thesis · February 2014

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Technical University of Graz

Head: Univ.- Prof. DI. Dr. Gernot Kubin

Project Report I SPSC Lab

Project Report II SPSC Lab

2 General Theoretical Considerations of Acoustics and Perception of Sound

3 Improving Room Acoustics 20

Project Report III SPSC Lab

3.4.2 Active Absorption-Reverse Sound Reproduction . . . . . . . . . . 30

4 Surround Sound Reproduction 38

5 Practical Example of Planning a Home Cinema 47

Project Report IV SPSC Lab

Project Report 1 SPSC Lab

Project Report 2 SPSC Lab

2 General Theoretical Considerations of Acoustics

2.1 Room Acoustic Parameters

A room can be considered as an acoustical linear and time-invariant system. Therefore,

2.2 Time Criteria

2.2.1 Reverberation Time [T]

2.2.2 Early Decay Time [EDT]

2.2.3 Center Time

Project Report 3 SPSC Lab

2.3 Energy Criteria

where t=50 for speech and t=80 for music

Project Report 4 SPSC Lab

2.4.1 Apparent Source Width

2.4.2 Listeners Envelopment [LEV]

2.4.3 Lateral Energy Fraction [LEF]

2.4.4 Interaural Cross-Correlation Coefficient [IACC]

Project Report 5 SPSC Lab

t1 , t2 define the time interval of the impulse response

2.4.5 Speech Intelligibility

Project Report 6 SPSC Lab

by a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), individual reflections or adverse reverberation in a

2.5 Directivity Index

DI = 10log10 Q [dB] (2.6)

2.6 Acoustics in Domestic Rooms

Reasonable absorption in domestic rooms can be caused by surfaces such as carpets,

Project Report 7 SPSC Lab

2.6.1 Reverberation Time

Reverberation time is commonly used as a measure for international standards. Never-

2.6.2 Loudspeakers and Rooms

Project Report 8 SPSC Lab

Project Report 9 SPSC Lab

Since the Schroeder frequency is based on empirical observations, it can be a useful

2.6.3 Loudspeaker Placement

Project Report 10 SPSC Lab

Project Report 11 SPSC Lab

2.7 Perceptive Effects

Project Report 12 SPSC Lab

Project Report 13 SPSC Lab

Project Report 14 SPSC Lab

2.8 Spatial Effects

2.9 Acoustical Interferences

Project Report 15 SPSC Lab

Project Report 16 SPSC Lab

Project Report 17 SPSC Lab

2.10 General Considerations about Room Modes

There are three types of room modes:

Room Modes Involved surfaces Energetic Ranking