Reexamination of an acoustical quality survey of Japanese concert halls in the 1990s

The authors had conducted a series of questionnaire surveys on the acoustical quality of concert halls in the Tokyo metropolitan area approximately 30 years ago, and now they have reexamined these data in light of current knowledge. In the surveys, eight to ten musical experts served as listeners at 12 orchestral concerts, judging the subjective impression in terms of reverberance, clarity, perceived sound strength, spatial impression (LEV), and overall quality. The surveys consisted of two rounds, each with slightly different sets of subjective attributes. Regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relationships between the subjective attributes and their corresponding physical parameters. In the first round, the relationships between subjective attributes and physical parameters differed from those observed today, when relatively low reverberant spaces were evaluated more favorably. In the second round, the relationships approached those currently recognized as such. This shift is likely attributable to historical context. That is, during the first round, concerts were typically held in multipurpose halls, while around the time of the second round, music-dedicated concert halls began to open.