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Aachener Beiträge zur
Technischen Akustik
Martin Guski
Influences of external error

sources on measurements of
room acoustic parameters
λογος
Martin Guski
Influences of external error sources

on measurements of room acoustic parameters
Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH
λογος
Aachener Beiträge zur Technischen Akustik
Editor:
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Michael Vorländer
Institute of Technical Acoustics
RWTH Aachen University
52056 Aachen
www.akustik.rwth-aachen.de
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;

detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de .
D 82 (Diss. RWTH Aachen University, 2015)
c Copyright Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH 2015

All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-3-8325-4146-0
ISSN 1866-3052
Vol. 24
Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH

Comeniushof, Gubener Str. 47,
D-10243 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 / 42 85 10 90
Fax: +49 (0)30 / 42 85 10 92
http://www.logos-verlag.de
Influences of external error
sources on measurements of room
acoustic parameters
Von der Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik der

Rheinisch-Westfälischen Technischen Hochschule Aachen
zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines
DOKTORS DER INGENIEURWISSENSCHAFTEN
genehmigte Dissertation
vorgelegt von
Dipl.-Ing.
Martin Guski
aus Tönisvorst
Berichter:
Universitätsprofessor Dr. rer. nat. Michael Vorländer
Universitätsprofessor Dr.-Ing. Dirk Heberling
Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 26. Oktober 2015
Diese Dissertation ist auf den Internetseiten der Hochschulbibliothek online

verfügbar.
meinen Eltern gewidmet
Abstract
Correct and precise measurements of room acoustic parameters are of fundamental

importance for subjective room impression characterization and for the physical
description of the sound Ąeld. This thesis investigates external influences on
acoustic measurements and errors of the resulting room acoustic parameters.
Theoretical models have been developed to predict these errors and indicate the
tolerable limits of the described influences. To validate these models, specially
designed room acoustic measurements that separate the individual influence
factors have been conducted.
Noise is one of the main influence factors and occurs during every measurement. In
this thesis the performance of Ąve commonly used stationary noise compensation
methods are systematically analyzed depending on the peak signal-to-noise
ratio. A theoretical model has been developed that demonstrates that these
Ąve techniques show clear differences regarding the size of the error. Long-term
measurements that clearly validate the model have been conducted. Impulsive
noise that could also occur during the measurement is investigated separately, as
the previously introduced compensation techniques are unsuited to handle the
influence. It is shown that even for impulsive noise events that are below the
level of the excitation signal, the error in the evaluated room acoustic parameter
is large. To avoid this additional error source, this thesis describes an automatic
algorithm to detect the occurrence of impulsive noise in a measured impulse
response.
The second part of this thesis analyzes the influence of time variances during
measurements: temperature changes, air movement, and scattering objects. In-
vestigations of temperature changes during one measurement show a signiĄcant
influence on the parameters. The sensitivity of the evaluated reverberation
time is clearly higher than the theoretical prediction. The tolerable differences
in temperature for different measurements have also been investigated in fur-
ther measurements. The results demonstrate that the theoretical assumptions
underestimate the error and that theory can therefore not be used to predict
or compensate this effect. The determined deviations for inter- and intra-
measurement changes are documented to allow error estimation. The studies of
human-sized scattering objects show only an influence on the clarity index nearby
the object. Air movements caused by an activated ventilation system have been
found to increase the random error of room acoustic parameters signiĄcantly.
V
However, the magnitude of the error is low and can be neglected for conventional
measurements.
This thesis shows that especially noise and temperature changes during the
measurements can introduce signiĄcant errors in the room acoustic parameters
and therefore have to be given particular consideration.
VI
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 Fundamentals 7
2.1 Measurement Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.1 Room Acoustic Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.1.2 Measurement Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.3 Excitation Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 Acoustic Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3 Room Acoustic Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3.1 Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.3.2 Sound Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.3.3 Energy Ratios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.4 Assessment of Error Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3 Noise Compensation 35
3.1 Noise Compensation Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.1.1 Method A: Full Impulse Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.1.2 Method B: Truncation at Intersection Time . . . . . . . . 38
3.1.3 Method C: Truncation and Correction . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.1.4 Method D: Subtraction of Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.1.5 Method E: Truncation, Correction, and Subtraction . . . 41
3.2 Evaluation Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2.1 Model Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2.2 Measurement Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.3 Comparison of Noise Compensation Methods . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.3.1 Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.3.2 Clarity Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.3.3 Sound Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.4 Summary of Noise Compensation Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.4.1 Random Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.5 Further Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.5.1 Implementation of Correction for Truncation . . . . . . . 56
3.5.2 Excitation Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
VII
Contents
4 Impulsive Noise Detection 61

4.1 Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.2 Detection of Impulsive Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.2.1 Proposed Detection Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.3 Experimental Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.3.1 General Assembly Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.3.2 Ordinary Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.4 Summary and Conclusion of Impulsive Noise . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5 Time Variances 83
5.1 Air Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.1.1 Measurement Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.1.2 Analysis of Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.1.3 Statistical Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.1.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.2 Inter-Measurement Temperature Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.2.1 Eurogress Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.2.2 Assembly Hall Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.2.3 Detailed Analysis of Clarity Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5.2.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.2.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
5.3 Intra-Measurement Temperature Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.3.2 Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.3.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.3.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.4 Person Scatter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.4.2 Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.4.3 ANOVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5.4.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5.4.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
6 Conclusion and Outlook 141
A General Assembly Hall 155
B Noise Compensation Methods 157

B.1 Systematic Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
B.2 Random Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
C Inter-Measurement Temperature Change 161
VIII
1
Introduction
The requirements for the acoustic conditions of a room are strongly dependent
on the intended type of usage. Concert halls or opera houses, for example,
are supposed to have long reverberation to support the music performed. For
conference halls or rooms for spoken performances, on the other hand, a long
reverberation cause smearing of subsequent syllables and is therefore undesirable.
Besides the reverberation, there are further details of the sound Ąeld (for example
early reflections or angle of incidence) that have an influence on the human
perception.
Several room acoustic parameters have been developed to quantitatively deter-

mine several perceptual aspects. Therefore, room acoustic measurements are
conducted to obtain the room impulse response (RIR) and the parameters can
be derived therefrom.
All acoustics properties of a room for a given source and receiver position are
characterized by the RIR, which represents the answer of the room to a very short
and loud impulse, such as a handclap, or a pistol shot. The impulse propagates in
numerous ways throughout the room and, depending on the length of the sound
path and the reflections on the walls, a characteristic RIR is formed. Generally,
the density of the reflections increases for the later parts of the impulse response
and the amplitudes decrease.
Figure 1.1 shows an example of a room impulse response. At the beginning, the
direct sound and early reflections can be distinguished. Because of the large
time difference between the early reflections, they can be seen as discrete single
events. In the later part of the RIR, the density of the reflections increases, and
1
CHAPTER 1. Introduction
they can only be described as statistical reverberance.

Sound pressure in Pascal
0.2
0.1
-0.1
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Time in seconds
Figure 1.1.: The measured room impulse response describes the acoustic condi-
tions completely. Several room acoustic parameters can be derived
directly from the room impulse response.
The reverberation time is the oldest and one of the most important room
acoustic parameters. It is determined from the later part of the impulse response
and describes the average decay of the sound power. The early reflections
cannot be perceived individually by humans and contribute in this way to the
sensed loudness of the direct sound [1, 2]. Reflections that arrive later can be
perceived as echoes and can therefore interfere with the direct sound. Room
acoustic parameters, such as the clarity index, model these perceptual effects
by determining the energetic ratio of early and late reflections. The precision of
these measured parameters is important to compare different auditoria, verify
reconstruction measures, or contractually deĄned requirements.
The measured reverberation time is also of fundamental importance in describing

the physical sound Ąeld. It is further essential for numerous acoustic measurement
procedures, such as for example, sound insulation, sound power, absorption, and
the scattering coefficient. The precision of these derived parameters directly
depends on the accuracy of the reverberation time.
The measurements of room acoustic parameters have been standardized in ISO
2
3382-1 [3] "Acoustics - Measurement of room acoustic parameters" to improve
the quality and comparability of these parameters. The largest error sources
are avoided by deĄning calculation algorithms, measurement equipment, and
conditions. Nevertheless, there are undeĄned details in the complex measurement
process, and some rules are rather lenient to ensure a backwards compatibility
of old measurement equipment.
ISO 3382 also summarizes the current state of research concerning the just
noticeable differences (JND) for the deĄned parameters. The JNDs (also known
as difference limens) have been determined in elaborate listening tests and deĄne
the change in a room acoustic parameter that can be perceived by humans. The
difference limens are important in the discussion of error sizes, since they deĄne
the maximum tolerable deviation for measurements.
Due to the importance of this parameter, several measurements were performed

and discussed in literature. In 1992, Pelorson, Vian, and Polack [4] tested the
influence of different elements of the measuring system and found large impacts
on room acoustic parameters. Lundeby et al. [5] conducted a measurement round
robin and compared the variances of the results. Seven different teams, each
equipped with own measurement hardware and evaluation software, measured
the same room according to ISO 3382. The standard deviations of several
investigated parameters were in the range or a little higher than the JNDs.
Bradley [6] organized another round robin where a digital reverberator device was
shipped to different measurement groups in the world. Due to the use of the digital
device, a number of parts of the measurement chain were not contained in the
analysis. Errors that usually occur due to loudspeaker, microphone, and the real
room are excluded. This concerns, for example, directivity, frequency responses,
and nonlinearities of loudspeakers and microphones. External influences such
as time-variances that occur in the room and the major noise source (ambient
noise) were also excluded in this investigation. A number of 23 different room
acoustic measurement systems were compared. Since the correct room acoustic
parameters of the digital device were unknown, the mean value is considered as
best estimate and the standard deviation of all results have been interpreted.
The observed deviations were small compared to the human difference limens,
implying robustness of the investigated parts of the measurement process.
3
CHAPTER 1. Introduction
Katz [7] excluded the complete measurement hardware from his round robin
and provided a digital impulse response to 37 different organizations. This way,
the study was independent of the unequal hardware of the participants and
focused on the signal-processing algorithms. In contrast to Bradley et al., the
impulse response used was a real measurement and therefore contained noise.
Because the measurement has been conducted using a bursting balloon, the noise
level was relatively high, leading to clear differences in the results. Katz found
variations larger than the JND for the lower frequencies that could be lead back
to the stationary noise floor detection and noise compensation techniques.
1.1. Objective
The objective of this thesis is to study single external effects that influence
acoustic measurements and investigate their impact on room acoustic parameters
in detail. Therefore, the underlying physical effects are used to develop models
that are able to predict the error impact on the parameters. These models can
be used to clearly identify the existing relationships and allow a prediction of the
expected error, based on the circumstances of a measurement. It is also possible
to determine the tolerable magnitude of the disturbing influence so as to stay
below a deĄned error of the parameter.
It is of fundamental importance to validate the developed models, because the
theoretical assumptions are often strong simpliĄcations of reality. It has to be
ensured that the neglected details have an insigniĄcant impact on the parameters
and no ignored effects are present. Therefore, special measurement setups are
designed that modify only the investigated influence and keep the remaining
conditions as constant as possible. For influences that cannot be modeled, the
measurements provide empirical data of the error, which can be used to assess
the size of the error.
4
1.2. Outline
1.2. Outline
Theoretical fundamentals such as measurement theory, room acoustic theory, and

parameters are summarized in Chapter 2. The effects of stationary noise and
the performance of the compensation techniques are investigated in Chapter 3.
Impulsive noise is an exception of the stationary assumption. The effects are
discussed in detail in Chapter 4, and an automatic noise compensation algorithm
is presented to overcome this problem.
Chapter 5 summarizes the analysis of time variances that occur during mea-
surements. The influences of air movement, temperature changes, and human
scattering objects are investigated separately. The determination of the impact
of temperature changes is distinguished between changes that occur between two
single measurements and within one measurement.
5
2
Fundamentals
This chapter gives a brief introduction into the fundamentals that are used in
this thesis. Basic concepts such as measurement theory, room acoustic theory,
and room acoustic parameter analysis are covered.
2.1. Measurement Theory
The commonly used system theory approach assumes a linear and time-invariant
(LTI) system. This allows describing every system by its complex valued and
frequency dependent transfer function 𝐻(𝑓 ).
In this context, linearity means that the output of the system, which is here
determined as 𝑦(𝑡), only contains the same frequencies that are also present in
the input signal 𝑥(𝑡). The amplitude of every single frequency 𝑓 is scaled by the
factor |𝐻(𝑓 )| and the frequency is shifted by the phase of the transfer function
arg (𝐻(𝑓 )). Time-invariance means that the behavior is constant over time. If
the system response to the input signal 𝑥(𝑡) is 𝑦(𝑡), an arbitrary time shift of
the input signal 𝑥(𝑡 − 𝑇 ) will result in a time shift of the output signal 𝑦(𝑡 − 𝑇 ).
Further information concerning LTI systems can be found in Oppenheim, Schafer,
and Buck [8] and Ohm and Lüke [9].
The transfer function of an LTI system can be calculated by dividing the output
7
CHAPTER 2. Fundamentals
by the input for every single frequency:1
𝑌 (𝑓 )
𝐻(𝑓 ) = . (2.1)
𝑋(𝑓 )
Equivalently to this frequency domain representation, the system can be described

in the time domain by the impulse response (IR) ℎ(𝑡). The impulse response is
the answer at the output of the system to an inĄnitely high and inĄnitely short
Dirac impulse Ó(𝑡) at the input. Both representations of the system (impulse
response and transfer function) can be converted into each other using the Fourier
transform:
∫︁∞
𝐻(𝑓 ) = ℎ(𝑡) · exp (−𝑗2Þ𝑓 𝑡) d𝑡 (2.2)
⊗∞
∫︁∞
ℎ(𝑡) = 𝐻(𝑓 ) · exp (𝑗2Þ𝑓 𝑡) d𝑓 . (2.3)
⊗∞
Because of this mathematical relation, the impulse response and the transfer
function are of equal importance and the terms are often used conterminously in
this thesis.
Nowadays, the complete signal processing is digital and therefore the signals are
presented in a sampled and quantized form. This introduces a few minor changes
in the presented theory. These changes are not discussed into further detail at
this point, but are take up if relevant.
2.1.1. Room Acoustic Measurements
The Ąrst room acoustic measurements were performed by W.C. Sabine in 1922.
He used organ pipes to excite a stationary sound Ąeld in a room and measured
the time needed for the sound Ąeld to decay. In this Ąrst approach he used his
1
Initially it is assumed that X(f ) ̸= 0
8
ears to detect the level decay and deĄned the reverberation time. Over time,
technical progress, with availability of electro-acoustic transducers, electronic
recording devices, and the personal computer changed the measurement proce-
dure and increased the quality of the measurements. Nevertheless, the basic
principle of Sabine is still a valid measurement method according to the room
acoustic measurement standard ISO 3382-1 [3], if a loudspeaker for excitation, a
microphone, and a level recorder are used.
However, the commonly used method to carry out room acoustic measurements
is the impulse response method. The impulse response completely describes the
acoustic properties of the room from the point of the sound source to the receiver
position. Based on this room impulse response (RIR) a variety of room acoustic
parameters (including the aforementioned reverberation time, see Chapter 2.3.1)
can be calculated. Furthermore, the RIR can be used to simulate the received
signal for any given input signal played back at the source position (also known
as auralization [10]).
The simplest way to determine the RIR is to excite the room with a pistol,
bursting balloon, or hand clapper. The impulse response can directly be recorded
with a microphone at the receiver position. The implementation is very easy, the
procedure is fast and the needed equipment is minimal. However, the disadvan-
tages of this method are poor reproducibility, a deviation of the often-required
omnidirectional directivity pattern, and the low ratio between signal and ambient
noise.
Because of these disadvantages, typically an electro-acoustic excitation is pre-
ferred. In combination with a personal computer, different excitation signals can
be used that signiĄcantly increase the measurement in many aspects. Therefore,
in this thesis only the impulse response method with loudspeakers is considered.
In Subsection 2.1.2, the measurement chain is described and in Subsection 2.1.3,
different excitation signals are discussed.
2.1.2. Measurement Chain
This chapter gives a brief overview of all devices involved in a typical room
acoustic measurement. The central device is a personal computer (PC) with
9
adequate software to execute the measurement and perform the necessary post-
processing. In this thesis a normal desktop PC with Matlab and the ITA-Toolbox
[11] is used.
A schematic overview of the measurement chain can be seen in Figure 2.1. The
PC generates (or stores) the digital excitation signal. The digital-to-analog (DA)
converter transforms the digitally sampled and quantized signal into an analog
continuous electrical signal. As indicated by the name, the ampliĄer ampliĄes the
low power DA output signal to drive a transducer. The loudspeaker transforms
the electrical signal into an acoustic signal. According to the commonly used
standard for room acoustic measurements the "sound source shall be as close to
omnidirectional as possible" [3]. However, ISO 3382 is not very strict, since the
limit values have to be measured only at one elevation angle and is averaged
over 30 degrees in azimuth. The standard also requires a sufficiently high sound
pressure level to obtain the required decay range (see Section 2.3). The measured
device under test is the room itself and the loudspeaker is usually placed on a
position where the sound source (orchestra, musician or speaker) is typically
located.
Digital Analog
Amplifier Loudspeaker
Converter
Personal
Room
Computer
Analog Digital Microphone

Microphone
Converter Amplifier
Figure 2.1.: Block diagram of the elements typically used in measurement chain
for room acoustic measurements.
Consequently, the microphones are located at typical audience positions. Mi-

crophones transform the acoustic signal back into an electrical signal. The
directivity depends on the purpose of the measurement or on the parameter to
be evaluated. Most parameters are based on measurements with omnidirectional
10
receivers. Some parameters that describe the spatial impression need special
microphones with Ągure-of-eight characteristic to separate the lateral components
of the received signal. Other spatial parameters need a detailed approximation of
the directivity of a human. Therefore, models of human heads (often including
torso) that are equipped with two microphones in their ears are used. These
binaural measurements can be used for auralization to enable a realistic spatial
hearing for the listener. The electric output signal of the microphone is ampliĄed
by the microphone ampliĄer and the analog digital (AD) converter samples
and quantizes the signal and provides the digital recorded signal. AD and DA
converters usually belong to the same sound card to ensure a synchronized
sampling.
The described measurement chain can be implemented with multiple channels

for input and output. Several input channels that enable measuring more than
one microphone position simultaneously are often used to reduce the total time
of the measurement session. For the output chain often two or three channels
are used to drive multi-way speakers. Further requirements for every part of the
measurement chain are linearity, time-invariance, spectral flatness, and low noise
level.
As mentioned before, the used measurement theory is based on LTI systems.
While high-quality ampliĄers and sound cards can be described in a good
approximation by LTI systems, the loudspeaker can show nonlinear components.
Since the nonlinear components increase with higher sound pressure levels, it is
a major advantage to use excitation signals that indicate the magnitude of these
distortions (i.e. exponential sweeps, see Section 2.1.3).
Every part of the measurement chain introduces noise into the measurement.
However, the magnitudes of the noise contributions differ strongly. Typically,
the greatest contribution is the inevitable ambient noise in the room that is
recorded by the microphone. It is caused by various sources inside and outside
the room and has a typical frequency dependent power density spectrum that
decreases with frequency by a factor of 1/𝑓 (also known as pink spectrum). Since
it is also recorded by the microphone, the ambient noise is also reinforced by
the microphone ampliĄer. One smaller contribution is the electronic noise that
is introduced by every electric device and has various causing effects, such as
11
semiconductor noise or thermal noise.
Utilized Measurement Equipment
This subsection describes the equipment used for the measurements in this thesis.
The sound card is a Digiface by RME in combination with three RME Octamic II
front ends. The Octamic II contains eight input channels, each equipped with a
24 bit AD converter and a high-class microphone pre-ampliĄer. The loudspeaker
ampliĄer is an HK Audio VC 2400, a two-channel ampliĄer with a total power
of 2400 W. Two types of microphones are used for the measurements: A Brüel
& Kjær 1
2
-inch free Ąeld microphone model Type 4190. In addition, a Nexus
Charge AmpliĄer of Type 2690 is used to provide the supply voltage for the
B&K microphone. Up to 24 Sennheiser KE-4 microphones with custom-made
impedance transformers are utilized to allow simultaneous measurements of
various positions.
The dodecahedron loudspeaker used for the measurements was designed and
constructed by the Institute of Technical Acoustics in Aachen, Germany. It was
developed to obtain an omnidirectional directivity and a flat frequency response
over a wide frequency range to measure impulse responses suitable for auralization
purposes. Since it is not possible to achieve an omnidirectional radiation over the
full audible frequency range with one single cabinet, the loudspeaker is realized
using a three band design (see Figure 2.2).
The core of the subwoofer is a 12-inch driver. The cabinet has a radiation opening
of only 10 cm to ensure an omnidirectional radiation up to 300 Hz. The tuning
of the housing results in a flat frequency response from 40 Hz to 300 Hz (-6 dB).
The medium frequency range is covered by a spherical cabinet with a diameter
of 30 cm. It consists of 12 loudspeakers, each 12 cm in diameter, and is placed
25 cm above the opening of the woofer. The usable frequency range is up to 6.3
kHz and the Ąrst deviation of directivity above 3 dB occurs at 2000 Hz. However,
the deviation limits according to ISO 3382 are deĄned on a smoothed version
of the directivity. The maximum deviation of the dodecahedron after averaging
is 1.3 dB in the 4 kHz octave band and 3.5 dB for 8 kHz. ISO 3382 speciĄes the
12
Figure 2.2.: Three way omnidirectional dodecahedron loudspeaker used for the
measurements.
maximum acceptable deviation in the 4 kHz octave band as ±6 dB and gives

no limits for 8 kHz. Figure 2.3 shows the averaged directivity of the mid-range
speaker. It can be seen that the speaker is always far below the limits, even for
high frequencies.
The high frequency unit is sphere made of aluminum with a diameter of 9.5 cm.
It is equipped with twelve tweeters of 0.8 inch diameter. The directivity can be
considered as omnidirectional for a frequency up to 5 kHz, considering a ± 3 dB
limit of the directivity without smoothing.
2.1.3. Excitation Signal
The major beneĄt of using loudspeakers is the flexibility concerning the excitation
signal. The properties of the signal have crucial influence on the quality of the
result. In the following section, a selection of the most important and commonly
used signals is described.
13
Deviation of directivity from average in dB

-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6
150
100
Azimuth angle in °
50
-50
-100
-150
1000 2000 4000 8000 16000
6 Maximum measured deviation

Deviation dB
ISO 3382 limit

4
0
1000 2000 4000 8000 16000
Octave band in Hz
Figure 2.3.: Directivity of the mid-range speaker averaged according to ISO

3382 (top). The maximum deviation of the directivity from the
average is compared with the limits deĄned in ISO 3382 in the
lower part of the Ągure. The mid-range speaker remain below the
limits even for frequencies far above its frequency range.
Impulse
The most obvious excitation signal is a Dirac impulse, since this corresponds to
the deĄnition of an impulse response. The advantage is that no post-processing
is necessary, since the recorded signal is already the wanted impulse response.
A Dirac impulse is deĄned as an impulse with inĄnitely high amplitude and a
duration approaching zero:
14
∮︁
∞ for 𝑡 = 0
Ó(𝑡) = . (2.4)
0 else
The equivalent time-discrete signal, the Kronecker delta, already shows the
physical limitations with duration of one sample (after DA conversion) and
amplitude of one (maximum in digital domain):
∮︁
1 for 𝑛 = 0
Ó𝑘 (𝑛) = . (2.5)
0 else
Despite the ampliĄcation in the output measurement chain, for normal room
acoustic measurements the emitted energy of the signal will be not much higher
than the noise energy. Additionally to the resulting low signal-to-noise ratio
(SNR), a further disadvantage is the high excitation on nonlinearities. Due to the
short high amplitude, the loudspeaker is in a critical operating point, typically
causing nonlinear behavior.
Maximum Length Sequences
Maximum length sequences (MLS) are pseudorandom binary sequences that

can be utilized as excitation signals. The main advantage of using a
longer signal is that more signal energy is available, resulting in a sig-
niĄcantly better SNR. A feedback shift register of length m can be used
to generate MLS of length 𝑙 = 2𝑚 − 1. The spectrum of the MLS sig-
nal is white and the autocorrelation function is approximately a Dirac
impulse. This fact allows calculating the impulse response as the cross-
correlation of the recorded maximum length sequence and the excitation sig-
nal.
An advantage of the MLS technique and the main reason for its popularity is
15
the possibility to use the fast Hadamard transform to calculate the correlation
function [12, 13]. Compared to other techniques, the computational requirements
are signiĄcantly smaller, which was an important factor in the 80s and 90s.
Since nowadays the computational power has increased drastically, the former
advantage has become insigniĄcant.
A disadvantage of the maximum length sequences is the sensitivity to nonlinear

distortions. For MLS measurements the distortions cause spikes spread over the
entire impulse response. It is not possible to remove the nonlinear components.
The spikes Ąrst appear in the noise part of the impulse response, because of
the lower amplitudes, but with increasing nonlinearities also the signal part is
affected, making the complete measurement useless [14].
Another advantage is the robustness of MLS against impulsive noise during the
measurement. The impulsive noise is transformed into a stationary noise and
thus distributed over the entire impulse response. Due to this time spreading,
the noise amplitude is considerably reduced. The random temporal structure and
the low amplitudes allow considering impulsive noise as an additional stationary
noise term in the impulse response as well. All noise detection and compensation
techniques are thus taken into account in a similar way.
Sweeps
A sweep (also known as chirp or swept sine) is a signal with constantly increasing
frequency. The analytic formulation of sweeps has the advantage of freely
selectable bandwidth and length of the excitation signal. Usually, a so-called
stop margin is flowed by the actual signal. In this silent part, no signal is played
back while the recording is continued. This ensures that all frequencies have
enough time to decay before the recording stops.
Sweeps offer several advantages compared to other excitation signals such as MLS
or random noise [15, 16]. Compared to MLS measurements, sweeps are more
robust to time variances. Since for sweeps every frequency is excited during a
relatively short moment, time variances in the system (for example, air movement
16
in the room or temperature changes of an ampliĄer, transducer, or the room)

result only in small errors. For MLS and noise measurements, all frequencies
are excited (pseudo)randomly in the entire measurement time, and the resulting
transfer function is an average of these conditions. Therefore, the resulting
impulse response might include inaccuracies caused by superposition effects of
those variances [17].
Deconvolution Compared to the aforementioned signals, the post-processing

differs: The recorded sweep at the microphone position has to be divided by
the excitation signal in the frequency domain to obtain the impulse response.
Compared to the MLS technique, the computational effort is larger due to
multiple Fourier transforms. However, this difference is hardly noticeable with
modern computers.
For sweeps that do not cover the full bandwidth, the parts of the spectrum
outside this bandwidth contain little energy. Due to the deconvolution, the
recorded noise in these frequency parts are ampliĄed very strongly, caused by
the division of small values, and this signiĄcantly compromises the result. This
inversion problem can be solved by using the regularization technique proposed
by Kirkeby [18]. A frequency-dependent regularization parameter is adjusted to
the relevant frequency range to limit the lowest values of the spectrum before
inversion.
One main disadvantage of sweeps is a result of the deconvolution process: the high
sensitivity to impulsive noise during the measurement. The detailed problematic
and possible solutions are described in Chapter 4.
The discrete Fourier transform (DFT) assumes periodic time signals. This way a
so-called cyclic (de-)convolution is used if both spectra are divided. All signal
parts that normally would appear at times 𝑡 < 0 appear at the end of the
impulse response. This behavior can be avoided by using linear (de-)convolution.
However, linear convolution requires a two to three time longer recording time or
- for the case of zero padding is used - results in non stationary noise conditions.
For that reason the cyclic convolution is preferred and used in this thesis. The
length of the sweep is chosen to be at least twice as long as the visible decay of
17
the room to ensure that effects caused by the cyclic convolution do not overlap
with the room impulse response.
There is a variety of types of sweeps. The most important ones are discussed
below.
Linear Sweep A sweep with constant envelope and a linear increasing frequency
is called linear sweep:
(︁ (︁ ⎡⎡
𝑓2 − 𝑓1
𝑠𝑙𝑖𝑛 (𝑡) = sin 2Þ 𝑓1 + 𝑡 . (2.6)
𝑡IR
This sweep covers a frequency range from 𝑓1 to 𝑓2 in a total duration of the
signal 𝑡IR . Since every frequency is excited by the same amount of time, the
spectral power density of a linear sweep is constant over frequency (also called
white following the spectrum of light).
Exponential Sweep The most common type is the exponential sweep (sometimes
also referred to as logarithmic sweep) [14]:
(︁ (︁ (︁ ⎡ ⎡⎡
𝑡
𝑠(𝑡) = sin 2Þ𝑓1 exp −1 . (2.7)
𝐿
Here 𝐿 deĄnes the exponentially increasing frequency as 𝐿 = 𝑡IR / log( 𝑓𝑓21 ) with
time of signal 𝑡IR and bandwidth deĄned by 𝑓1 and 𝑓2 . The exponentially
increasing frequency results in a decreasing power density spectrum with 3 dB
per octave (called pink spectrum). Since most noise sources in acoustics also
show a power spectrum density inversely proportional to frequency, this is an
advantage because the signal to noise ratio becomes approximately frequency
independent.
Another beneĄt of exponential sweeps is the behavior of systems with nonlinear

components [19]. Due to the exponential dependence of instantaneous frequency
on time, every harmonic component appears as a time-shifted version of the
fundamental sweep. The time shift increases with the order of the harmonic and
depends on the parameters of the sweep. The division of the excitation signal
causes all components of a certain harmonic component to be transformed to one
18
point of time in the resulting impulse response. The "harmonic impulse responses"
appear before the fundamental impulse response, with the same time shift as
harmonic sweeps in the recorded signal. In case of cyclic division, all components
of the impulse response appearing at time 𝑡 < 0 are cyclically wrapped to the
end of the signal. In Figure 2.4 the nonlinear components can be seen at the end
of the RIR.
The clear appearance of nonlinearities allows a fast and objective estimation of the
nonlinear components of the system compared to the fundamental components.
This allows controlling nonlinear components precisely, for example, by regulating
the output ampliĄcation. Other excitation signals do not provide this advantage:
For linear sweeps the time in the RIR for one harmonic component is dependent
on the frequency. This results in a smearing of the harmonic impulse response
and it complicates the estimation of the magnitude of the nonlinearities.
Another advantage of the distinct appearance of the nonlinear components for

exponential sweeps is the possibility to remove these components in the post-
processing by simple truncation of the RIR. However, Ćirić et al. have shown
that the nonlinearities also introduce an error to the fundamental part of the
impulse response [20].
-40
Amplitude in dB
-60
-80
-100
-120
0 5 10 15 20
Time in seconds
Figure 2.4.: Room impulse response measured with exponential sweep and
calculated using cyclic convolution. The nonlinear components
appear at the end of the impulse response.
19
Signal to Noise Ratio
One important aspect that describes the quality of a measurement is the ratio of
signal and noise energy. In measurement theory, typically the logarithmic ratio,
the so-called signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is used:
∏︀ 𝑡 ⎞
∫︀IR 2
̂︁ 𝑠 (𝑡) 𝑑𝑡 ̂︂
̂︁ 0 ̂︂
SNR = 10 · log10 ̂︁ 𝑡 ̂︂ dB . (2.8)
∐︁ ∫︀IR 2 ̂︀
𝑛 (𝑡) 𝑑𝑡
0
The signal energy 𝑠2 (𝑡) and the noise energy 𝑛2 (𝑡) are integrated over the
complete length of the impulse response 𝑡IR . For practical applications the
calculation of the SNR is not trivial, since it is not possible to record the signal
without any noise components. For that reason in room acoustics often the peak
signal-to-noise ratio PSNR is used:
⎤ ⎣
^
ℎ
PSNR = 20 · log10 dB . (2.9)
𝑁0
^ in the
It is the logarithmic ratio between the maximum signal amplitude ℎ
impulse response ℎ(𝑡) and the root mean square of the stationary noise floor 𝑁0 .
The PSNR can directly be read off the impulse response as the level difference
between maximum and noise tail. Assuming a diffuse sound Ąeld in the room
with exponential decay, PSNR can be converted to SNR and vice versa:
∏︀ (︁ 6𝑡IR
⎡⎞
^2
ℎ 𝑇
1 − 10⊗ 𝑇
6 log (10)
𝑒
SNR = 10 · log10 ∐︁ ̂︀ dB (2.10)
𝑁02 · 𝑡IR
(︃ 6𝑡
)︃
IR
1− 10⊗ 𝑇
= PSNR + 10 · log10 𝑡IR dB . (2.11)
𝑇
6 · log𝑒 (10)
The reverberation time 𝑇 describes the decay of the room (see Section 2.2 for
deĄnition). For the same reverberation time 𝑇 and a constant length of the
impulse response 𝑡IR , both measures differ only by a constant offset. As a rule
of thumb, a ratio of impulse response length to reverberation time of 1.5, the
20
2.2. Acoustic Theory
offset can be estimated to:

𝑡IR
SNR = PSNR − 13 dB for ≈ 1.5 . (2.12)
𝑇
2.2. Acoustic Theory
Acoustic waves propagate with the speed of sound 𝑐. The relevant medium for
room acoustics is air and under normal conditions the speed is approximately
𝑐 ≈ 344 m/s. The speed of sound is dependent on the temperature Θ of the gas
[21]:
√︂
Ù𝑅𝑓,𝑚𝑜𝑙 Θ
𝑐= . (2.13)
𝑀𝑟
The adiabatic or isentropic constant for air is Ù = 1.4 and the molar mass of
dry air 𝑀𝑟 = 0.0289644 kg/mol. The molar gas constant for air 𝑅𝑓,𝑚𝑜𝑙 is also
dependent on temperature Θ, relative humidity 𝜙, and static pressure 𝑝:
𝑅𝑚𝑜𝑙
𝑅𝑓,𝑚𝑜𝑙 = (︁ ⎡ (2.14)
𝑅𝑚𝑜𝑙
1− ℎ
100
1− 𝑀𝑟 𝑅𝑑
with the molar gas constant for air 𝑅𝑚𝑜𝑙 = 8.31 Nm/(mol K) and the gas constant
of water vapor 𝑅𝑑 = 461 J/(kg K). The molar concentration of water vapor ℎ in
percent is:
(︁ (︀ Θ0 )︀1.261 ⎡
𝑝𝑟 ⊗6.8346 Θ
+ 4.6151
ℎ = 100 · 𝜙 · ·10 (2.15)
𝑝
with the reference static pressure 𝑝𝑟 = 101325 Pa.
The acoustic conditions in a room are mainly influenced by the positions and
the acoustic properties of its surrounding walls. Using a geometrical acoustic
21
approach, the sound Ąeld in a closed space can be described as a large number
of particles emitted from the source position in all directions. These particles (or
rays) travel along straight lines and are reflected by the walls until they reach
the receiver. In an ideal diffuse sound Ąeld, the statistical mean free path length
between two reflections is deĄned by the geometry of the room (volume 𝑉 and
surface 𝑆) and can be estimated to:
¯ 4𝑉
𝑙= . (2.16)
𝑆
With each reflection the particle loses a part of its energy, depending on the
absorption coefficient of the wall Ð. This absorption causes the energy of the
sound Ąeld to decay exponentially as soon as the sound source is switched off.
The time that is needed for the sound Ąeld to decay to one millionth of its original
value is called reverberation time. It is the most important parameter to describe
the perceived acoustics of a room (c.f. Section 2.3.1) and an important measure
to calculate the physical energy density of a room. Combining the mean free
path length and the average absorption coefficient of the walls Ð̄, the theoretical
reverberation time can be estimated to
−24 · log𝑒 (10) 𝑉
𝑇 = . (2.17)
𝑐 𝑆 · ln(1 − Ð̄)
The so-called Eyring formula is often linearized for small absorption values to
the Sabine formula:
24 · log𝑒 (10) 𝑉
𝑇 = . (2.18)
𝑐 𝑆 · Ð̄
With the knowledge of the reverberation time 𝑇 , the ideal room impulse response
can be described as an exponential decay with maximum amplitude ℎ: ^
^ · 10(⊗3 𝑇𝑡 )
ℎ(𝑡) = ℎ (2.19)
In this model approach the so far only considered propagation loss is the absorp-
tion of the walls. Formula Eq. (2.17) can be extended to cover the effect of air
22
2.3. Room Acoustic Parameters
absorption:
−24 · log𝑒 (10) 𝑉

𝑇 = (2.20)
𝑐 𝑆 · ln(1 − Ð̄) − 4𝑚𝑉
where 𝑚 is the damping constant of air. While this effect might be negligible
for low frequencies, it becomes dominant for high frequencies. Bass et al. [22]
developed formulas to calculate the damping constant for air as a function of the
ambient atmospheric temperature Θ, the pressure 𝑝𝑎 and the molar concentration
of water vapor ℎ in percent:
[︃(︃ √︂ )︃
(︁ ⎡⊗5/2
𝑝𝑟 Θ Θ
𝑚 = 2 · 𝑓2 184 · 10⊗13 + · (2.21)
𝑝𝑎 Θ0 Θ0
(︃ )︃⟨
e( ) e( )
⊗2239.1 ⊗3352
Θ Θ
1275 · 10⊗5 · 𝑓2
+ 0.1068 · 𝑓2
𝑓𝑟𝑂 + 𝑓𝑟𝑂
𝑓𝑟𝑁 + 𝑓𝑟𝑁
with the reference ambient atmospheric pressure 𝑝𝑟 = 101.325 kPa and the
reference temperature in kelvin Θ0 = 293.15 K. The two relaxing frequencies of
oxygen and nitrogen are deĄned as:
(︁ ⎡
𝑝𝑎 4 0.02 + ℎ
𝑓𝑟𝑂 = 24 + 4.04 ·10 · ℎ (2.22)
𝑝𝑟 0.391 + ℎ
∏︀ [︁(︀ )︀⊗1/3 ]︁ ⎞
(︁ ⎡⊗1/2 Θ
𝑝𝑎 Θ ⊗4.17 Θ0
⊗1
𝑓𝑟𝑁 = · ∐︁9 + 280 · ℎ · 𝑒 ̂︀ (2.23)
𝑝𝑟 Θ0
These calculation instructions are regulated in the international standard ISO

9613-1 [23]. The difference between Eq. (2.21) and the ISO equation is a factor of
2
8.686
, which results from a conversion between decadic and Naperian logarithm,
and the consideration of energies instead of amplitudes.
The aim of room acoustic parameters is - as the name suggests - to describe the
acoustic conditions in a room. The characterization is on one hand motivated
23
348 10 4
r.H. = 0 %
r.H. = 10 %
347
10 3 r.H. = 20 %
r.H. = 30 %
r.H. = 40 %
346 r.H. = 50 %
Air attenuation in dB / 100m

10 2 r.H. = 60 %
Speed of sound in m/s
r.H. = 70 %
345 r.H. = 80 %
r.H. = 90 %
10 1 r.H. = 100 %
344
10 0
343
10 -1
342
341 10 -2
340 10 -3
15 20 25 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6
Temperature in °C Frequency in Hz
Figure 2.5.: Speed of sound in dependence of the temperature (left) and air
attenuation constant 𝑚 as function of frequency and for several
values of relative humidity (right).
by the attempt of quantiĄcation of the subjective human perception and on the

other hand the description of the physical sound Ąeld. Over the decades scientists
have studied the main factors of room acoustic perception and have developed
parameters to describe these influences quantitatively by using room acoustic
measurement procedures. First objects of interest were especially auditoria
where the acoustic condition is the key factor, such as concert halls, opera houses,
theaters, and churches. Nowadays, the importance of acoustic conditions has
been recognized even for smaller rooms such as conference rooms, classrooms, or
sport halls. Therefore, standards were deĄned with appropriate ranges for room
acoustic parameters (c.f. ISO 18041 [24]).
The reverberation time is used to describe the physical energy conditions in a

room. Subsection, 2.3.1 gives an overview of technical measurement procedures
that are based on reverberation time measurements.
Besides the measurement equipment and procedures (as described in Section

2.1), ISO 3382-1 [3] also describes deĄnitions for a number of room acoustic
parameters. These commonly accepted parameters are investigated in this thesis
24
and are described in detail in the following section.
2.3.1. Reverberation Time
The reverberation time 𝑇 has a special position among all room acoustic param-
eters, since it is the Ąrst known and the most important acoustic parameter. It
is deĄned as the time that is needed for a stationary sound Ąeld to decay to one
millionth of its initial energy corresponding to a level decay of 60 dB.
The old measurement principle of Sabine is still applicable according to ISO 3382
(called interrupted noise method), but it is rarely used. The random nature of
the excitation noise introduces a random error to the evaluated reverberation
time and is the reason for the necessity of averaging several measurements.
Schroeder [25] proposed a new method for measuring the reverberation time,
where the decay curve 𝐸(𝑡) (short EDC, also known as backward integrated
impulse response or Schroeder curve) is calculated from a measured room impulse
response ℎ(𝑡) (Figure 2.6 top left). The impulse response is squared to obtain
the echogram (Figure 2.6 top right). The EDC is calculated by the backwards
integration:
∫︁∞ ∫︁𝑡
𝐸(𝑡) = ℎ2 (á ) dá = ℎ2 (á ) d(−á ) . (2.24)
𝑡 ∞
Figure 2.6 shows the result with the exponential decay of the sound energy
(bottom left) or the linear decay of the level (bottom right).
!
𝐸(𝑡) is often normalized to max (𝐸(𝑡)) = 𝐸(0) = 1 to obtain as EDC that starts
at 0 dB in logarithmic representation and has linear decay.
Schroeder showed that the average of an inĄnite number of interrupted random

noise measurements gives the same result as one measurement of the integrated
impulse response method. Based on the calculated decay curve, the decay rate
is determined using linear regression.
25
Impulse Response Squared Impulse Response

5 30
Amplitude
Amplitude
20
0
10
−5
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Energy Decay Curve Logarithmic Energy Decay Curve

1
Amplitude in dB
0
Amplitude
0.5 −20
−40
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Time in seconds Time in seconds
Figure 2.6.: The single processing steps to calculate the energy decay curve.
The impulse response (top left) is squared (top right) and the
backward integration is performed (bottom left). In the logarithmic
scale (bottom right), the linear level decay can be seen.
The initial decay of the EDC is strongly influenced by the direct sound and not
by the relevant reverberance. Therefore, the initial 5 dB drop in level is excluded
and the linear regression is applied to the decay curve from -5 dB to -65 dB below
the maximum value. The evaluated reverberation time is labeled 𝑇60 to indicate
the evaluation range of 60 dB.
The usable decay range is limited by the level difference between signal and noise
and in practice it often does not allow a determination of 𝑇60 . In these cases it is
possible and common practice to evaluate a smaller level range, like for example
20 dB (from -5 dB to -25 dB). The decay time of 20 dB is extrapolated to 60 dB
decay and the parameter is called 𝑇20 . Using the same method (always starting
at -5 dB and evaluating the range that is speciĄed in the index and extrapolating
to 60 dB), other decay ranges (such as 𝑇10 , 𝑇15 , 𝑇30 , 𝑇40 or 𝑇50 ) can be evaluated
to choose the largest dynamic range for the given signal-to-noise ratios.
26
Despite the adjustment of the evaluation range, the noise contained in the
measurement can have a signiĄcant influence on the calculated reverberation
time. Therefore, ISO 3382 suggests a level difference of at least 10 dB between
lower evaluation range and background noise level. This standard also deĄnes two
methods to compensate noise effects. These techniques and their performance
are discussed in detail in Chapter 3.
Jordan [26] proposes the early decay time (EDT) with a slightly different deĄnition
of the reverberation time that also contains the direct sound. The evaluation
range is from 0 dB to -10 dB and the decay time is also extrapolated to a 60 dB
decay. It is shown that EDT correlates better with the subjective perception of
reverberance than the reverberation time T.
According to ISO 3382 the analyzed frequency range should cover at least 250 Hz
to 2 kHz, if no speciĄc frequency bands are required. The extended frequency
range for engineering and precision methods should include all bands from 125 Hz
to 4 kHz.
27
Technical Application of Reverberation Time
In technical applications the measured reverberation time is used to derive a

measure of the diffuse sound Ąeld. Therefore, the Eyring or Sabine formula
is used to estimate the sound Ąeld energy (see Section 2.2). In the following
sections, the most common measurement procedures are described.
Diffuse Sound Absorption The diffuse sound absorption properties of a material

are determined in a reverberation chamber. This is a special measurement room
equipped with sound diffusors and low absorptive walls to provide a sound
Ąeld as diffuse as possible. For the determination of the absorption coefficients,
the reverberation time of the empty chamber is compared to the reverberation
time when the investigated sample is placed in the room. The change in the
reverberation time can be lead back to the additionally inserted equivalent
absorption area of the sample. The details of this measurement procedure are
described in ISO 354 [27].
Sound Scattering The scattering coefficient describes the directional reflection

properties of materials and surfaces. Therefore, the reverberation times in the
reverberation chamber at four different conditions has to be measured. This
method is standardized in ISO 17497-1 [28].
Sound Power The sound power describes the total sound energy radiated by a
device. One method to determine the sound power is deĄned in ISO 3741 [29].
The sound pressure level caused by the device is measured in a reverberation
chamber and the influence of the room is compensated by taking the reverberation
time of the chamber into consideration.
Sound Insulation The determination of the insulation index of walls in buildings

or building elements is described in ISO 140 [30]. Therefore, in the sending room
a loud sound Ąeld is generated and the sound pressure levels in the sending and
receiving rooms are measured. The room acoustic properties of the receiving
28
room have an influence on the measured sound pressure level, but they are not
related to the sound insulation. Therefore, the recorded sound pressure level has
to be corrected using the measured reverberation time in the receiver room.
2.3.2. Sound Strength
Sound strength is a room acoustic parameter that characterizes the perceived

loudness. It describes the stationary sound pressure level (SPL) in an auditorium
with reference to the SPL of the same omnidirectional source in free Ąeld
conditions and at a distance of 10 m. The sound strength 𝐺 in dB can be
calculated from the impulse response:
∏︀ ∫︀∞ ⎞
2
ℎ (𝑡) d𝑡
̂︁ 0 ̂︂
𝐺 = 10 · log10 ̂︁
∐︁ ∫︀∞
̂︂
̂︀ (2.25)
2
ℎ10 (𝑡) d𝑡
0
Here ℎ10 (𝑡) is the measured impulse response of the sound source at a distance of
10 m under free Ąeld conditions. In order to average the inevitable directivity of
the source, it is necessary to repeat the measurements every 12.5 ◇ and calculate
the energetic average. According to ISO 3382-1 [3], it is also possible to measure
at smaller distances (≥ 3 m) and compensate the amplitude assuming a point
source or measure the source level in a reverberation chamber. The sound
strength can also be calculated directly from the energy decay curve 𝐸(𝑡):
𝐺 = 10 · log10 (𝐸(𝑡 = 0)) − 𝐿𝐹 (2.26)

⎤∞ ⎣
∫︀
where 𝐿𝐹 = 10 · log10 ℎ210 (𝑡) d𝑡 is the level of total energy in the free Ąeld
0
reference measurement.
2.3.3. Energy Ratios
The temporal occurrence of reflections and their amplitudes have a major influence
on the room acoustic perception. Early reflections that appear directly after the
29
direct sound are not discernible as single reflections, but enhance the perceived
loudness of the direct sound. The human ear integrates these Ąrst reflections
and thus they help to understand speech or music and the subjective clarity is
increased. Whereas, later reflections that can be distinguished as separate echoes
decrease the intelligibility. The echoes and the reverberation smear the time
structure and syllables become blurred, decreasing the speech comprehensibility.
Various psychoacoustic studies performed listening tests and determined the
limit between useful and disturbing reflections to be in the range from 50 ms to
100 ms [2, 31].
Definition 𝐷50
In 1953, Thiele [32] deĄned the Ąrst energy ratio called deĄnition ("Deutlichkeit").
He set the limit to divide the reflections up to 50 ms and deĄned the deĄnition
𝐷50 to be the percentage energy of the Ąrst part compared to the total energy:
50 ms
∫︀
ℎ2 (𝑡) d𝑡
0
𝐷50 = ∞ (2.27)
∫︀
ℎ2 (𝑡) d𝑡
50 ms
The deĄnition is primarily used for speech presentations and is standardized in

ISO 3382-1 [3]. The deĄnition can also be directly calculated from the energy
decay curve 𝐸(𝑡):
𝐸(𝑡 = 50 ms)
𝐷50 = 1 − (2.28)
𝐸(𝑡 = 0 ms)
30
Clarity Index 𝐶80
For musical content the temporal limit for useful reflections is higher, since
the reflections are less detectible than for speech signals. Reichardt, Alim, and
Schmidt [33] proposed the clarity index 𝐶80 with the time limit of 80 ms and on
a logarithmic scale:
∏︀ 80∫︀ms ⎞
2
ℎ (𝑡) d𝑡
̂︁ 0 ̂︂
𝐶80 = 10 · log10 ̂︁
∐︁ ∫︀∞
̂︂
̂︀ (2.29)
ℎ2 (𝑡) d𝑡
80 ms
The clarity index is also deĄned in ISO 3382-1 [3] and is used for musical
presentations. The clarity index can be calculated using the energy decay curve
using the formula
⎤ ⎣
𝐸(𝑡 = 0 ms)
𝐶80 = 10 · log10 −1 (2.30)
𝐸(𝑡 = 80 ms)
A rough assessment of the clarity index can be made by assuming an ideal

exponential sound Ąeld, which is only described by the reverberation time (c.f.
Eq. (2.19)) and therefore the clarity index can be calculated as:
(︁ 6≤80 ms
⎡
𝐶80 = 10 · log10 10 𝑇 −1 (2.31)
Estimations of other energy parameters like 𝐷50 can be derived in a similar way.
However, this estimation only provides a rough estimate of the whole room, since
for this theory the reverberation time is the same as in the room. The direct
sound and the early reflections that are the motivation for deĄning the room
acoustic energy parameters are not included in the ideal diffuse Ąeld theory.
31
2.4. Assessment of Error Size
The assessment of the tolerable error size for room acoustic parameters depends
strongly on the application. The decisive measure for room acoustic parameters
to describe the subjective perception is the just noticeable difference (JND) of the
corresponding parameter. The JND describes the amount of change in the room
acoustic parameter that is necessary to notice a perceptive difference. JNDs (also
known as difference limens) are determined by listening tests and are deĄned as
the difference where half of the test persons recognize the diversity correctly.
Seraphim [34] investigated the difference limens of reverberation time in 1958. He

found JNDs of around 5% in the typical range of reverberation times from 0.5 s
to 2 s. Since for listening tests synthetic stimuli with exponential decays are used,
all reverberation times (EDT, 𝑇10 , 𝑇20 , etc.) are equal and the derived results
apply to all reverberation times. Cox, Davies, and Lam [35] analyzed the JND of
the clarity index and found thresholds of about 1 dB and only a small dependence
on the motif. Further studies (for example, by Bradley, Reich, and Norcross [36]
or Ahearn et al. [37]) conĄrmed the Ąndings. These just noticeable differences
are also reported in ISO 3382 and are generally accepted. For the assessment
of errors in room acoustic measurements, these form the basis to deĄne the
maximum tolerable error. For measured room acoustic parameters that deviate
in the order of JNDs from the correct value, even the rather insensitive human
perception is able to sense a difference and these measurements are unusable.
To allow a description of the perceived room acoustic or to compare several
measurements on a perceptual basis, it is necessary that the error is at least less
than half the JND. For single interfering influences that fall below one tenth of
the JND, it can be assumed that the influence is negligible.
The reverberation time is also used in numerous technical applications (c.f.

Subsection 2.3.1) and a measurement error in the reverberation time propagates
directly to the calculated parameter. Thereby the sensitivity of the result on
the input error depends on the corresponding calculation. Depending on the
determined parameter and on the intended purpose of the results, the tolerable
error of the reverberation time can be signiĄcantly lower than for the formerly
32
2.4. Assessment of Error Size
mentioned perceptual purpose.
The most sensitive applications for errors are methods where the detailed time
structure of the impulse response is analyzed directly without preprocessing
steps such as the backward integration or linear regression over a wider range.2
Techniques that superposition several single measurements to calculate the Ąnal
result are very sensitive to small changes. An example is the technique that uses
a large number of measurements with different source directivity to maintain
a spherical harmonics representation of the source [38]. With the spherical
harmonics coefficient any source directivity can be synthesized afterwards.3 Even
extremely small changes of the acoustic system invalidate the time-invariance
assumption that is crucial for the superpositioning approach. Changes of room
acoustic parameters can be considered as indicators for time variant systems and
point out critical measurement sessions.
2
Of course, the same applies to methods that operate in frequency domain.
3
The possible directivities depend on the order of the available spherical harmonics domain.
33
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Well—Leda was still Rayth's hostage. He shook himself,
straightened his back, and walked boldly up to the gate.
Two pikes slanted across his path. "Hold! What do you wish?"
"I have to see the Chief Engineer."
"This is not the time for audiences. Come back after the sunrise
ceremonies."
"It won't keep. I bear special news from the Lands-that-see-not-
Earth."
The guards captain's face lit with a flicker of interest. "What is it?"
"It's for the ears of his Wisdom alone."
"Then wait your turn."
"Look here," said Rikard, "you can send him a message that it
concerns certain newly found ores of power. If his Wisdom isn't
interested, I'll go my way. But if you don't do this much, I'd hate to be
in your skin when he learns what you've kept from him."
"Hmmm—well—" The captain rubbed his chin. There was a
superstitious awe deep within his eyes, and the other sentries
gaped. "Well, all right." He peered narrowly at the barbarian, "You're
not of the city. Where are you from?"
"Moonburg, if you must know. But my message!"
The captain blew a whistle, and an acolyte came forth from within to
receive the word and run back with it. Rikard stood waiting, trying not
to shiver with the gathering tautness of the moment. Rayth had told
him to give this message, and it seemed to work. The prince had
added that the Temple was seeking to recover the lost secret of the
legendary Tommic's Power, so immensely more potent than the
sunlight batteries, but had not gone far for lack of the necessary
metals. To Rikard, Tommic had merely been a local god worshipped
by some towns, though in other stories he was the devil responsible
for the Fall.
"Your sword," said the captain.
Rikard shrugged. It was understandable that no visitor should bear
weapons within the Temple, especially after Rayth's last few
attempts. He unslung his glaive and handed it over, and permitted
them to search him for concealed knives. It did not seem to occur to
them, in spite of his hard-thewed size, that hands and shod feet have
killed men.
The acolyte returned, a full Engineer with him. The latter spoke
hurriedly. "Who are you, stranger, and what is this word you bear?"
"I am Atli Athur's son of Moonburg, your Knowledge," said Rikard,
bowing as low as his stiff-necked soul permitted him. "If it please
you, this word I have should not be discussed out in public."
"No—no—certainly not. I'll take you to his Wisdom. Follow me."
Rikard went after the swirling red robe, his narrowed eyes taking
careful note of everything they passed. Down a long muraled
corridor, opening into rooms which seemed oddly little like religious
centers—they glittered with metal and glass and plastic, and
Engineers in drab, stained smocks labored with a bewildering variety
of instruments, past a couple of guardsmen—
The thing to do, he thought grimly, was to break the old fellow's neck,
grab a sword from the nearest armed man, and try to cut his way
out. None of Rayth's men were allowed inside the Temple, but if they
were waiting just beyond the gates he might have some chance.
The corridor ended in a tall doorway where four sentries in gold and
scarlet stood by rigidly held pikes. Beyond was the great audience
chamber.
It was lavishly furnished, gold and jewels and velvet and the lovely
ancient works. The far side was a great sheet of plastic opening on
the raw splendor of landscape and an Earth at the full, its eerie blue
radiance streaming in to blend with the soft glow of fluorotubes.
Rikard had little time for esthetics; his gaze roved in search of
enemies.
No soldiers in this room, and the Engineer who guided him was
closing the massive door on the sentries—praise the gods, it gave
him a chance to kill the Chief and burst out and surprise those men!
About a dozen Engineers stood around the Throne of Wisdom—
high-ranking to judge from their robes, most of them young and
burly, not a one of them bearing sword or dagger.
Rikard knelt before the Throne until a voice that was almost a
whisper said: "Rise, my son, and say your message."
"Thank you, your Wisdom." The rebel got up and moved closer to
the old man who sat before him. A very old man, he saw, thin and
stooped and frail, with a halo of white hair about the gaunt face and
the luminous eyes and the wonderful dome of a forehead. For an
instant, Rikard despised himself.
But Leda, Leda of the fair tresses and the low sweet laughter and the
undaunted gallantry, Leda was hostage to Rayth.
"You brought word of ores of power found on the far side of Luna,"
said the Chief Engineer. He pursed his lips and tapped his knee with
the jeweled slide rule of his office. "But how would the heathen there
know what to look for?"
"They weren't looking for anything, your Wisdom," replied Rikard. He
stood some five feet away—one easy jump. "It was a certain
Engineer-educated trader from this city, Borsu by name, who several
years ago was captured by Moonburg men attacking a caravan of
his. I had him for slave, but he was so bold and wise a man that
soon we were more friends than master and servant, and it was he
who organized an expedition to the heathen lands. He thought their
ores, which we on Earthside have little exploited, could be obtained
for our manufactured goods at a fine profit and sold here in Coper
City. It was he who saw those deposits and had them mined. On our
return, we found that Moonburg had been brought under your city's
rule, but nevertheless—"
They were relaxing their wariness, intent on his account.
"—we thought that we could still do business, especially with the
Temple. As Borsu was ill, I left him in Moonburg and came myself to
—"
He hit the Chief Engineer with a smack of bodies and his hands
closed around the thin neck.
Thunder and stars exploded in his skull. He reeled aside, falling to
the ground, and the Engineer rushed on him with the club he had
pulled from his long sleeve.
Rikard kicked out, and the Coper flew backward, grunting. The
barbarian snarled and lurched to his feet. Swords and daggers
gleamed as the others yanked them from concealment.
Trapped. They weren't stupid, these Engineers, and now he was
trapped!
Rikard hurled himself forward in a flying tackle, hit the nearest man
and rolled over on the floor with him. Wrenching the fellow's dagger
loose, he bounded back to his feet and rushed another Engineer.
"Alive!" screamed the old man. "Take him alive!"
For the torture cells—no! Rikard closed with the Engineer, stabbing
him in the shoulder before he could slash with his sword. He pulled
the glaive loose and backed toward the wall, growling, sword in one
hand and dagger in the other. The men formed a defensive line
around their Chief and brandished their blades.
The wounded Engineer rose suddenly and sprinted for the door.
Rikard threw the knife after him, missed, and groaned as the door
was swung wide and the four guardsmen entered.
"Ha, Nyrac!" he yelled and threw himself upon them. His sword
whistled, clanged off the metal shaft of the nearest pike, and raked
the cuirass beyond. Another guard hit him with the butt of his pike
and he staggered. Now the blows rained on him, smashing thunder
of violence and lightning-shot darkness. The sword fell from his hand
and he toppled, still cursing. Someone kicked him as he fell.
He lay there, half conscious, mumbling through a mask of blood
while they bound him. When the reeling and the blurring ended, and
only the thumping pain and the slow drip of red were left, he sat up
and glared at them where they stood around him.
"I thought Rayth was wiser than that," muttered an Engineer.
"It wasn't a bad trick." The old man fingered his throat with a wry
smile. "He almost made it. But who are you, so bold as to go alone
and unarmed in war against the Temple?"
Rikard shook his ringing head. The sickness in him was as much
from stupefied dismay as from his hurts. That he should have failed
—that he should have been captured and bound like a pig for
slaughter the second time!
"Hm—now let me think." The Chief Engineer stroked his chin.
"Obviously Rayth would only have tried this with an assassin so bold
and strong that there would be some chance of success, and at the
same time one over whom he had enough of a hold to drive him to
this desperate mission. Now it is only ten or fifteen hours since we
heard that the mighty Rikard of Nyrac had been captured by this
same Rayth."
"Rikard of Nyrac—aye, your Wisdom, they said he was big and dark,
it must be he. Right?" A foot kicked the prisoner.
"Gently, Wanno, gently. There is no cause to maltreat him when he is
helpless. Nobody was killed in this little affair." The Chief Engineer
stooped over Rikard and smiled. "See here, my friend, I have no ill
will for you. I've chuckled for a long time over your impudent
bearding of the Coper lords, and I wouldn't mind doing you a good
turn if you'd let me."
"But first I have to do something for you, eh?" Rikard grinned without
humor. "It seems to be a city custom."
"Be reasonable, man. You've failed your mission; Rayth will have no
further use for you, and only here is there protection. I daresay
you've no love for Rayth, and he is our greatest enemy as well."
Rikard was silent.
"Now what reason did you have to do his foul work for him? I cannot
quite imagine Rikard of Nyrac turning assassin for hire."
"They say a woman was captured with him, your Wisdom," said one
of the Engineers thoughtfully.
"Ah, so. And Rayth holds her. Hm." The Chief Engineer paced back
and forth, the robes swirling around his thin stooped form. Suddenly
he said: "Bring this man a bowl of wine."
It was a fire coursing in his veins, the leaden haze lifted from his
mind and he looked at his captors with cleared eyes. The Chief
Engineer said to him:
"Rikard, this is the situation in Coper City. The old bold dynasty of
the Mayors has faded till the last of them sits bibbing in his
apartments with little interest in anything save a new wench.
Meanwhile the struggle for the real power over this growing empire
lies between the great nobles, of whom Rayth is chief, and the
Temple, which recruits from all ranks and is thus closer to the people
and more alive to their wants. The world has come down far since
the Fall. What was a wise and glorious and adventurous civilization
has been destroyed, and this, its successor, is stagnant and cruel
and ignorant; it has done little which was new or decent in a
thousand years. I do not say that the Temple is blameless; the early
Chief Engineers found it convenient to monopolize what true
knowledge was left and to ally themselves with the nobles in
crushing the commons. But in the past generation we have tried to
make some amends, we have spoken against human slavery and
unjust laws, and we would like to teach all men enough to make
them more than walking bellies. Temple and nobles agree that man
must be united—"
Rikard snarled at him.
"—but it is rather for us to learn freedom from the barbarians, in
exchange for our order and culture, than for them to be enslaved by
us; and there is a sharp split between the parties. Furthermore, we
have tried to regain the ancient knowledge by the methods with
which it was won in the first place—that is, by trying our ideas to see
if they work, rather than by blind acceptance of ancient authority. You
must have noticed our laboratories as you entered. But this leads to
heretical questioning of everything, and the nobles do not like it.
"Thus Rayth has several times sought to have me assassinated.
There is little I can do save guard against it—I would get no
satisfaction in the courts. If he should succeed, he could use his
influence and very likely get one of his own hand-picked Engineers
named to my office. For we—scientists—are a small party in the
Temple, and only the more or less accidental fact that I was
converted to such views shortly after assuming the slide rule has
given us our success. If we could somehow overcome him, there
would be a chance to make some improvement in human life,
perhaps even to reach Earth eventually. If we fail, as seems all too
probable, the long night will descend completely."
He stopped, and there was a moment's silence in the great chamber.
Then Rikard said: "I suppose you're telling me more or less the truth.
I don't really care, one way or the other. But why? What do you want
of me?"
"I don't know," said the Chief Engineer frankly. "I really don't know
whether it wouldn't be safer all around just to return your head to
Rayth. But—Rikard, the Temple has been at one grave
disadvantage. Its younger men are often doughty fighters, as you
have seen, but they are still mostly technicians, intellectuals, people
without practical experience in warfare. You, on the other hand, have
fought all your life. If you have any suggestions, they will be carefully
considered."
"And what do I get from this?"
"Your life, of course, and your freedom. Likewise your woman's, if we
can save her. We can talk later of other rewards. You may find it
worthwhile to work with us."
Rikard leaned back against the wall, letting his mind slide over the
facts and the chances. Presently he nodded his blood-matted head
and began to talk.
The Temple gate burst open and the big man shot out in a flying leap
that carried him over the heads of the sentries to land on the plaza
grass. A spear flew after him. He grabbed it and whirled about and
threw it back.
"Stop him!" roared an Engineer. "Kill him! He killed the Chief!"
The guards sprang at Rikard, yelling, and others boiled out of the
Temple in their wake. He was already fleeing toward the corridor
beyond. A shrieking laborer sought to bring him down—he kicked the
man in the teeth, beat another aside with the flat of his sword, and
pushed a way into the suddenly milling throng.
Half a dozen armed men were around him, blades flashing out. One
grinned savagely in his beard. "We thought you were dead," he
gasped. "You were in there so long—"
"We'll all be dead if we don't get out of here," snapped Rikard.
The raging Temple warriors were crowding through the press of
humanity toward them. And from the swirling mob there seemed to
rise one great groan.
"The Chief is dead.... The Chief is dead.... They killed him, the dirty
murdering nobles—"
The old fellow's claim to be beloved of the people was not a lie,
thought Rikard tautly, and crammed a fist into the mouth of the
nearest man who rushed, weeping and cursing at him.
Swords and pikes clattered together as the guards hit the tight circle
of Rayth's warriors. Rikard led the retreat, his sword whistling and
thumping—he did not cut, but he hammered a way through the mob,
and it fell back before his great bloody shape.
"The ramp—over there—"
They braced themselves and leaped, ten feet straight up, arcing
forward to land on the upward-curving surface. Then they ran!
A hurled spear flashed, and one of Rayth's men toppled. Two more
had been pulled down by the bare hands of the commons, and
another had fallen in the retreat. The crowd, half angry, half
frightened, moved slowly after them.
They dashed into a corridor on the noble level, and the two city
guardsmen posted there clanged the gate shut in the face of pursuit.
Panting, they stopped and looked at each other.
"There'll be Mars to pay down there," said the leader hoarsely. "Riots
—"
"Take me to his Excellency," said Rikard.
"Aye—at once—and good work, barbarian! You did a job that we've
tried to do for the past five years."
They went swiftly down the long passageways, up ramps and stairs,
past the sumptuous apartments of the rich where men and women,
children and servants and slaves cowered at sight of drawn weapons
and at the faint, rising noise of the lower levels. When they came to
Rayth's door, they entered without ceremony.
The prince leaped to his feet, spilling his wine-glass, and the lean
bearded face blazed at Rikard. "Is it done?" he yelled. "Did you really
do it?"
"Aye—aye—" The rebel leaned wearily on his sword and let his eyes
rove the chamber. There were seven or eight other men seated
around the table, mostly older and fatter than Rayth but all with the
rich dress and the inbred hauteur of the rulers. There was also a
high-ranking Engineer, a sly-faced elderly man whose heavy-lidded
eyes barely flicked over the newcomers before retreating back to
their own dreams. But it was to Leda that Rikard's gaze went first,
Leda who had been sprawling sullen and splendid on a couch and
who now started up and ran to him and clung wordlessly to his
bleeding form.
"Aye, he's dead," nodded the barbarian.
"It took you several hours," said Rayth. "I was sure you had failed."
"They made me wait a long time while the Chief finished an—an
experiment, they called it. But I got at him, broke his neck, and
grabbed a sword and chopped my way out." Rikard strode boldly
over to the table and grabbed up a glass and drained it.
"Do you hear that?" Rayth turned on the others and his voice rose to
a shout. "Do you hear that?" His laughter was loud and wild. "He's
dead! His Wisdom Laon XIII, Chief Engineer of Coper City, is dead!
Are you ready to assume the post, Jastur?" he cried to the Engineer,
"Would you like to take the name of Laon XIV?"
"It might be a good idea to wait for some confirmation," said the
other imperturbably.
Rayth paced the chamber, restlessly, eyes smoldering, and the
guests muttered to each other. Rikard and Leda paid no attention;
they were holding close, and his hands and lips caressed her with a
new and desperate tenderness.
Someone else entered, a strong young acolyte who saluted and said
between gasps for air: "He's dead, sirs, he's been killed, and it's
Mars down there! The commons are running wild!" There was a
knife-slash across his face; blood dripped slowly to the red of his
gown.
"What did you see?" snapped Rayth. He sprang over and grabbed
the acolyte by the shoulders and shook him, "What did you see?"
"I—I heard a great uproar in the audience chamber, through the
closed doors. That must have been something else, though, for his
Wis—old Laon came out and went into a laboratory. Then some
hours later he returned to the chamber, and—and presently there
was another noise, louder and lasting longer—then I saw this man
here burst out, knock down a guard in his way, and go down the hall,
I looked in—they were lying heaped in blood, and an Engineer came
in and lifted the old man and shrieked that he was dead. Then there
was panic, everyone running, guards fighting to get out after the
killer—I slipped away and came here as you told me, sir—"
"Dead!" Rayth's shout echoed between the walls. "Dead, d'you hear?
After five years I've killed the old swine, and Temple and commons
alike are rioting—What more excuse do we need?"
"Excuse?" whispered a noble.
"Certainly!" Rayth grinned. "As a public-spirited gesture, we
assemble our personal guards and march them down there to
restore order. With the Temple occupied by us, your election to the
slide rule becomes a certainty, Jastur."
"There'll be fighting," said the Engineer nervously. "The young
Engineers are—were—almost all on his side, you know; they won't
receive you kindly—and then there are the commons—"
"Bah! Engineers and mobs against trained blades? Certainly there'll
be bloodletting, but it won't be our blood—at least, if we can get
down there before they have time to organize."
Rayth lifted his voice to a shout, and a guards officer stepped in and
saluted. There was something like terror under his hard-held mask.
Rayth snapped swift orders and he ran off.
"We'll unite all our personal forces," said the prince, biting the words
out as he paced from wall to wall. "The Mayor's men and the regular
city guards aren't to be relied on; I wouldn't be surprised if half of
them swung to the Temple's side if they get a chance. Most of the
regular army is out of the city, on garrison or combat duty, and it
wouldn't be too safe either. But between us we've got three hundred
trained bold men ready to follow us down there."
"Us?" squeaked a noble.
"Oh, stay if you want. I'm going down!" Rayth turned to clap Rikard's
shoulder, "You too, my friend. You've done well, oh, excellently well,
and you'll have a rich reward!"
The Nyracan shrugged. Inwardly, he was filled with a sudden wonder
as to whether he had done the right thing or not. He didn't much
care, really, who won; they were all Copers to him—but the prince's
payment was more certain and tangible than the Temple's, and—
Too late now.
He went into the bathroom, where Leda washed and bandaged his
hurts and whispered to him: "There is more behind this than you say,
my dearest, I know you too well."
"Aye, there is, but I can't tell you now. Stay close by me and don't be
too surprised at anything I may do."
Leda went back to Rayth and said: "Give me a blade too."
"You—a woman?" he asked.
"I've sent more men to Earth than you ever did," she snapped. "From
here on, Rikard and I fight together."
"Well—I hate to risk such beauty being hacked up—but far be it from
me to oppose that beauty's lightest wish," laughed the Coper.
"Remember, though—you'll be among my own troops, and they don't
take kindly to traitors."
She smiled at him. "How could anyone betray you?" she whispered.
"The oldest trick in the world," sighed Rayth, "and it still works. Very
well, take what you wish from the armor chest over there."
She and Rikard equipped themselves with weapons—a sword for
her, an ax for him—cuirasses, and helmets. By that time they could
hear the sound of marching feet. Rayth buckled on his own armor,
lifted his sword in a mocking salute to his timorous comrades, and
walked out into the hall.
It was a strong and well-trained force, filling the corridor with hard
bodies and edged steel, pikes and axes aloft, raising a shout that
roared and boomed down the hall as Rayth appeared. He put
himself in the van, with the barbarians in the second rank behind his,
and the troop started off to battle.
Clang of booted feet slammed echoing on the metal floor, rattle and
clash of armor, grim jests tossed from lip to bearded lip. These were
the killers, the professionals without fear of man or Earth, the trained
elite which formed an army within an army and the fulcrum of the
noble power. Watching them, marching with them, Rikard felt a
sudden sick doubt within him. Untrained barbarians had toppled
before this iron weapon—
They came to the closed gate, and Rayth unlocked it and led the
way down the ramp beyond. Level after level dropped past them,
deserted now, silent and empty, but the broken roaring from below
had grown, screaming its outrage, screaming for blood.
When they emerged on a landing at the ceiling of the Temple level
and looked down twenty feet, it was to a boiling pool of humankind,
gray workers, naked slaves, velvet merchants, leather artisans,
women and children, howling and trampling until the din shook the
walls and rattled the teeth in a man's skull. The surge of white,
hating faces reached beyond vision, mouths agape, eyes red and
running, animal voices barking and clamoring. Rikard had never
seen a true mob before, and the elemental violence of it shook even
his calloused soul. It did not occur to him to regret the fact that many
of these people must die.
Rayth stood for an instant stroking his beard, thinking, and then he
lifted his sword and sprang over the rail. The lines followed him,
jumping one by one, a dozen men simultaneously floating down with
pikes reaching beneath them.
They landed among the mob, hewing a clear way even as they fell,
and struck out. The crowd surged back, leaving red remnants
underfoot, and the troopers continued to leap—forward ranks
pressing toward the Temple, while the rearward lines were still
jumping. Rayth's blade whistled and butchered; his face was alight
with a dark glee. Rikard and Leda, sandwiched between others,
could do nothing but add the weight of their bodies to the mass of
the troop. The pack howled and bayed and cursed around them.
Missiles began to fly, hammers, ore-lumps, crowbars, wrenches,
anvils hurled by brawny arms. A guardsman staggered and fell, his
face cracked open. Another was seized by the cloak, dragged into a
group of women, and carved with butcher knives. A third had his pike
snatched from him, and a big smith jabbed it into the throat of a
fourth before he was killed. The crowd gave way before the
ruthlessly advancing soldiers, but it closed behind them and filled the
air with noise and flying death.
"They killed the Chief!"
Leda's eyes were wide and her breast rose and fell behind the
binding corselet. Her voice came dimly to Rikard under the boom
and howl of raw voices. "They hate us!"
"So they do." He smiled bleakly.
Now the Temple was before them, its high wall looming over the
trample and clamor, a thin line of its own guards holding back the
rioters. Rayth's red blade lifted anew, and his bugler wound a single
harsh note. The troop moved forward on the double.
Vaguely, Rikard heard the prince calling to the guards, "Let us
through—Mayor's order—protect you—"
"No one goes in—you bloody swine!"
The bugle screamed again and the soldiers locked ranks and
charged.
Swords and pikes clanged at the gate; the sudden recoil hurled the
rear lines backward. Rikard grabbed Leda's flowing hair and pulled
her ear close to his lips and muttered swiftly, "Listen, we're with the
Temple. First chance you get, break free and go over to them—once
we're inside!"
She clasped his hand, briefly, and then the sentries were down and
the troop rushed inside.
Beyond was a long narrow darkness of corridor. Nothing stirred,
nothing spoke; they hastened through a fumbling gloom with only
their footfalls and hoarse breathing and clash of metal for company.
Rikard heard Rayth's voice, puzzled. "Where are the others? The
Temple has plenty of its own guardsmen, where are they? Has
everyone fled?" Then, he laughed. "If so, why, it makes our task all
the easier. Forward!"
They burst into the great audience chamber, and it was lighted and
the Temple was waiting for them.
The young Engineers were reinforced by commoners, weapons in
hand and armored in spacesuits.
The invaders let out one roar and the forward ranks hurled spears
that bounced off metal and plastic and tough cord. From the
Engineers, arrows suddenly darkened the air, the whistling death
flamed among the soldiers and the lines sagged amidst their toppling
members.
There was a press from the rear, men driven forward, and in the
instant's bawling panic only Rikard knew what it was—the Temple
guardsmen, aided perhaps by armed commoners themselves,
throwing their power out of the rooms and side passages where it
had lurked, blocking the troop's retreat and falling on it from the rear!
The line eddied and swirled about him, spears flying, arrows and
hurled throwing-axes, the ranks of Rayth buckling under pressure
from both ends. Time to get out of here, before anyone suspected
that he, Rikard of Nyrac, had led them into the trap.
He turned on the man beside him and his ax hewed low, shearing
through flesh and bone of a leg. As the screaming warrior fell, he
brought his weapon up, a backhanded blow crashing into the face
beyond. The man behind him thrust from the side; he took the spear
on his cuirass and kneed viciously. Stooping over, he undercut
another of his late companions, and Leda reached over his back to
slash down the soldier beyond.
Rikard bent his knees and leaped, soaring over the fallen, a dozen
pikes stabbing up after him. He hardly noticed the sharp bright pain
where one raked his thigh; he was through their line and Leda was
with him. They drifted down among the Engineers.
A big red-faced young man snarled behind his space helmet and
lifted an ax as Rikard descended. Someone else grabbed his arm.
The helmets were left propped open, and his voice could reach. "No,
Shan, those are friends!"
"Oh, sorry—I forgot." Shan swung about and spattered the brains of
the nearest trooper.
The fight was now pressed into the audience chamber; men jammed
together, slashing and hacking at arm's range—there'd soon be
more room, thought Rikard grimly, and took his place in the Engineer
line. The Temple, though, had order and plans of a sort, however
relatively untrained its fighters were, while the invaders were broken
up into knots and fragments where their discipline could not exist.
The important thing was to hit them, and keep hitting them, so they
didn't get a chance to reform.
His ax smote, clanging off metal, raking the face and the arm behind.
A blade hacked at him; he caught it on his helve and turned the blow
and hewed back. Leda was beside him, her clear war-cry raising as
she stabbed and struck; Shan the Engineer was chopping and
roaring pious mottoes on his other flank: the Temple men pushed
against the roiling soldiers, took their blows on their heavier armor,
and gave them back with murder behind. The clamor of men and
metal was a roar as of sundering worlds.
Rayth was fighting like a demon, his blade whirling and shrieking, his
voice lifted in a rallying-cry that drew his scattered followers together.
He had courage, thought Rikard above the snarl of combat—
perhaps he was a fitter chief after all. But too late now!
Ha, there went another, tumbling with his head half off his shoulders
—so, a helmet crumpled, and the skull beneath it.
Back and forth the battle raged, breaking and tearing, ruining the
chamber and the lives of men, and over it lifted the great calm disc of
Earth and the million scornful stars. Back and forth, trampling,
sundering, killing and laming, and Rikard was painted with blood and
his arms grew weary from swinging the ax.
The chamber began to clear as men fell; it was floored with corpses
and one had room to cast a spear or take a flying leap down on the
head of an enemy. The soldiers had suffered hideously, but there
were many Temple dead, ordinary guardsmen, scantily armored
commoners, Engineers with their spacesuits pierced or their helmets
cloven. The fight was breaking into knots and clusters, small
whirlpools of murder swaying back and forth over the great blood-
wet space, men springing through the air at each other. It seemed to
Rikard, as he raised blurred eyes toward holy Earth, that the disc
had grown noticeably gibbous—had they fought that long?
"Over here! Stand and fight, men of Coper!"
It was Rayth, backed into a corner above a high heap of fallen
Temple men, foremost in a grim and haggard line of troopers hurling
back wave after wave. Rikard shook his head, a sudden dark sense
of destiny on him, and moved across the floor with lifted ax.
"You," said Rayth, very softly. "You—the triple turncoat—" Suddenly
he threw back his head and laughter pulsed in his throat. "Oh, it was
lovely, man, lovely, I never thought you had that kind of brains! Shall
we play the game out?"
He stepped from his line, tossing his sword and catching it again,
kissed his hand to Leda, and fell into an alert position before Rikard.
The barbarian growled, squared off, and fell on him.
Rayth danced aside from the shrieking ax, and his blade whipped in
against Rikard's throat. The rebel rolled, barely ducking the thrust,
and Rayth grinned without much malice and sprang at him. His
sword clattered and yelled, biting the Nyracan's arms, bouncing off
the hard-held guard to sing around his opponent's ears. Rikard fell
back, grunting in surprise, and Rayth pursued him, lightfooted,
leaping, playing with him.
Scream and clangor of steel, hoarse gasps for breath, bounding
human forms in a strange and terrible grace of murder, clash and
bite and two faces staring into each other's eyes across the web of
flying metal. Rikard hewed out again and again, cleaving empty air;
his phantom enemy was somewhere else to rake him until he
staggered and splashed his blood on the floor.
Leda yelled and sprang on Rayth from behind. His sword whirled
around, caught in the guard of hers and sent it spinning free, and
slewed back to meet Rikard's charge. He retreated before the rebel's
rush, laughing, parrying blow after clumsy blow, waiting for the end.
It came swiftly. Rikard's bull charge forced Rayth back into a corner
where he braced himself and smiled. As the ax whirred down toward
his skull, he lifted his blade to parry it as he had done before—and
the steel broke across.
Rikard stood gasping, reeling on his feet, looking down at the body
of his foe with a numbness stealing over him. He hardly noticed the
sobbing girl who flung herself into his arms; he stood mute for a long
while and when he spoke at last it was dully.
"That wasn't right. I didn't kill him—a flaw in his blade did—it isn't
right, somehow."
The Chief Engineer came to Rikard where he stood watching the first
harsh glare of sunrise creep over the heights of Copernicus. The
barbarian leaned heavily on his woman. He had taken many hurts.
Laon's old face was drawn with weariness; there was no great
triumph in him. "It's over," he said. "It was a bloody, horrible
business, but we hold the entire city now, all levels; the nobles are
our prisoners and the Mayor is our puppet and the Temple is
victorious. Thanks to you, my friend."
"There is more to do," said Rikard. "The armies will hear about this,
out in the conquered provinces, and many of them, at least, won't
like it. There'll be hard fighting to hold what we have."
"Oh, yes. Though I think with some diplomacy, and with the
provinces restless at their backs, they may decide—well, we must
see. And afterward there is much more to do, generations of work—
Are you with us, Rikard?"
"I suppose so. I'll have to think about it. Nyrac should not be a mere
province, but—well—I'll think about it."
"At least," said Laon, "we can rest a little while now."
"It's over, darling, darling," whispered Leda. "The fight is over."
Rikard held her close, but he was thinking of the armies beyond the
city, and the restlessness of the conquered towns and the ruthless
will of those still free; of the long task of raising men turned into
brutes by centuries of injustice and oppression, of making them free
and fit to use their freedom, and of all the evil elements which would
be seeking to thwart that goal; of the still greater war to be fought by
quiet men. In the Temple, the war to regain the lost wisdom of the
ancients, the battle which would hammer out the long road back to
Earth.
"No, Leda," he said, very softly, "it's just beginning."
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Influences of External Error Sources on

Measurements of Room Acoustic

Italy between the EU and Berlusconi Effects of external

Springer Handbook of Atmospheric Measurements Thomas

Situate Manipulate Fabricate An Anthology of the

Acoustic Cues in the Disambiguation of Polysemous

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Influences of external error

Influences of external error sources

Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;

D 82 (Diss. RWTH Aachen University, 2015)

c Copyright Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH 2015

Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH

Von der Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik der

Diese Dissertation ist auf den Internetseiten der Hochschulbibliothek online

Correct and precise measurements of room acoustic parameters are of fundamental

4 Impulsive Noise Detection 61

6 Conclusion and Outlook 141

A General Assembly Hall 155

B Noise Compensation Methods 157

C Inter-Measurement Temperature Change 161

Several room acoustic parameters have been developed to quantitatively deter-

they can only be described as statistical reverberance.

The measured reverberation time is also of fundamental importance in describing

The measurements of room acoustic parameters have been standardized in ISO

Due to the importance of this parameter, several measurements were performed

Theoretical fundamentals such as measurement theory, room acoustic theory, and

2.1. Measurement Theory

by the input for every single frequency:1

Equivalently to this frequency domain representation, the system can be described

2.1.1. Room Acoustic Measurements

2.1.2. Measurement Chain

Analog Digital Microphone

Consequently, the microphones are located at typical audience positions. Mi-

The described measurement chain can be implemented with multiple channels

semiconductor noise or thermal noise.

Utilized Measurement Equipment

maximum acceptable deviation in the 4 kHz octave band as ±6 dB and gives

2.1.3. Excitation Signal

Deviation of directivity from average in dB

1000 2000 4000 8000 16000

6 Maximum measured deviation

ISO 3382 limit

Figure 2.3.: Directivity of the mid-range speaker averaged according to ISO

Maximum Length Sequences

Maximum length sequences (MLS) are pseudorandom binary sequences that

A disadvantage of the maximum length sequences is the sensitivity to nonlinear

in the room or temperature changes of an ampliĄer, transducer, or the room)

Deconvolution Compared to the aforementioned signals, the post-processing

Another beneĄt of exponential sweeps is the behavior of systems with nonlinear

Another advantage of the distinct appearance of the nonlinear components for

Signal to Noise Ratio

offset can be estimated to:

2.2. Acoustic Theory

with the reference static pressure 𝑝𝑟 = 101325 Pa.

−24 · log𝑒 (10) 𝑉

These calculation instructions are regulated in the international standard ISO

2.3. Room Acoustic Parameters