The quality of music reproduction in four different control rooms was judged by 90 subjects. The test passages, loudspeakers, listening level, and the frequency response at the listening position were kept constant. The aim of the tests was to determine the influence of the listening conditions of different control rooms. The four control rooms has the following characteristics, including mean reverberation times: 1) reverberant, 0.7 s; 2) semireverberant (LEDE- system), 0.4 s; 3) damped, almost reflection free, 0.2 x; 4) like 3 but with 24 loudspeakers. The four conditions were constructed consecutively in a given control-room space. In each case the sound system was equalized for a listening position at the center of the control desk. A known high-quality test tape with different types of music recordings was reproduced by the monitor loudspeakers and recorded at the listening position with an artificial head. The different room conditions could now be judged in A-B comparisons. The reverberant control room 1 was preferred for chamber music and church organ. LEDE, room 2, received the most votes for the drum solo and disco music, followed by the nonreverberant room 3. It is concluded that a compromise is necessary in the acoustic design of control rooms when they are to be used with many types of music. This compromise is found in many existing control rooms where short-term reflections from windows, doors, equipment, and other furnishings give rise to a sense of reverberance. Control rooms for a specific use can follow a particular design. The study starts with an equalized loudspeaker system, which is necessary for a comparison of the control rooms. The evaluation of control rooms for speech is under way. It is expected that some of the conditions of the present test will not be suitable for speech.
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