Loudspeaker Choice and

Placement
D. G. Meyer
School of Electrical & Computer
Engineering

Outline
Sound System Design Goals
Review
Acoustic Environment Outdoors
Acoustic Environment Indoors

Loudspeaker Choice and Placement

Summary / Conclusions

Sound Reinforcement System

Design Goals
evenness of coverage
intelligibility (articulation loss of consonants)
ratio of direct sound field to reverberant
sound field
gain before feedback
SPL at furthest listening position
frequency range/response
smoothness of frequency response curve
locality of reference
headroom

Factors Which Complicate

Sound System Design

reverberation / echo
early / late arrivals
room surfaces (absorption)
room geometry
seating characteristics
variable fill
empty room full room

Review
In acoustics, the ratios most commonly
encountered are changes in pressure level,
measured in dB-SPL:
dB-SPL = 20 log10(p/po) where po = 20 N/m2

As distance from a sound source doubles,

the dB-SPL decreases 6 dB (this is called
the inverse square law)
Adding/subtracting dB levels:
SPLa SPLb = 10 log10 [ 10 db-SPLa/10 10db-SPLb/10]

Doubling acoustic power corresponds to a

3 dB increase in SPL
Doubling perceived loudness corresponds to
a 10 dB increase in SPL

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Sound Power Levels

Sound power levels (dB-PWR) are
calculated as:
dB-PWR = 10 log10[ (acoustic power) / 10-12 watt ]

The standard reference for power in audio

work is 0.001 watt (1 milliwatt), called
0 dBm, which corresponds to 0.775 volt
across 600
Example: The power in watts corresponding
to +30 dBm is:
30 dBm = 10 log10[ x / 10-3] = 10 log10[x
103]
= 10 log10 [x] + 10 log10 [103]
= 10 log10[x] + 30
0 = 10 log10[x] x = 1 watt

Acoustic Environment Outdoors

SPL decreases 6 dB for every doubling in
distance
Sound energy dissipates due to mechanical
effects (greater dissipation at higher
frequencies)
Relative humidity affects sound absorption
(greater at higher frequencies)
Temperature gradient affects sound
refraction
Ground surface causes reflection and
absorption of sound

Sound Refraction Due to Temperature

Gradient

Acoustic Environment Indoors

Consider enclosed space with internal
volume V and total boundary surface S
Each surface si has an absorption
coefficient ai
The average absorption coefficient is
aavg = [si ai]/S
The room constant R = (Saavg)/(1-aavg)
The room will possess a reverberation time
RT60 (time in seconds for steady-state
sound to attenuate 60 dB)

Determination of RT60

Acoustic Environment Indoors

The sound arriving at a listeners ears has
(at least) three distinct divisions:
direct sound
early reflections
reverberant sound

The direct sound undergoes no reflections

and follows inverse-square-law level
change (-6 dB per doubling of distance)
The reverberant sound tends to remain at
a constant level if the sound source
continues to put energy into the room at a
regular rate

Sound paths in a concert hall

Time relationship of direct and

reflected sounds

Comparison of direct, early, and

reverberant sound fields in an auditorium

Acoustic Environment Indoors

This gives rise to several basic sound
fields:
near field
free field
reverberant field

far field

The near field is typically defined to be

within a distance of twice the largest
dimension of the sound source
In the far free field, inverse-square-law
level change prevails
In the reverberant (diffuse) field, sound
energy density is nearly uniform

Critical distance (Dc)

Sound fields in an enclosed space

Critical Distance
Dc (the critical distance) is the point at
which the direct sound and the reverberant
sound are both at the same level
Dc determines the maximum acoustical
separation, hence maximum acoustic gain
Dc can be controlled by changing R (the
absorption of the room surfaces) or the Q
of the loudspeaker (higher Q, more
directive, less reverberant energy)
Dc determines the required directivity of
the loudspeaker in an existing room

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Intelligibility
Several methods have been devised for
assessing the speech intelligibility of
sound reinforcement systems
Articulation loss of consonants
(%ALCONS) is one method of determining
the articulation score of an enclosed space
If ALCONS < 10%, intelligibility is very
good
Between 10-15%, intelligibility is sufficient
ALCONS of 15% is considered a practical
working limit

ALCONS
A scale of the percentage of the
articulation loss of consonants. A formula
derived by V.M.A. Peutz based on
distance, RT60, Volume of air in the room,
the N factor, and the Q of the source. A
measure of how difficult it is to understand
someone in a room. The lower the
number, the better for speech intelligibility.
Source: Church Audio & Acoustics Glossary

ALCONS
The measured percentage of Articulation
Loss of Consonants by a listener. An
ALCONS of 0% indicates perfect clarity
and intelligibility with no loss of consonant
understanding, while 10% and beyond is
growing toward bad intelligibility, and 15%
typically is the maximum loss acceptable.
Source: http://www.owenscorning.com/around/sound/glossary.asp

Causes of Reduced Intelligibility

Poor signal-to-noise (SNR or S/N)

Excessive reverberation
Long/delayed reflections
Loudspeaker misalignment
Misequalization
Q too low (beamwidth too wide)
Distance from source

Designing for Acoustic Gain

Sound (at listeners ears) must be
sufficiently loud (25 dB above ambient
noise level at mid-frequencies in rooms
with RT60 1.6 sec)
Sound must reasonably approximate
audio spectrum produced by source
Sound must reasonably approximate a
ratio of direct-to-reverberant sound within
the constraints of acceptable articulation
loss

Effective Acoustic Distance

Based on room characteristics and
ambient noise level, can calculate the
maximum physical distance between a
talker and listener with no sound system
Want this equivalent acoustic distance
(EAD) to be established at the farthest
(most distant) listening point
EAD is the perceived (rather than actual)
distance between the sound source and
the listener

Basic parameters of a single-source

system

Distances involved in NAG calculation

Acoustic Gain Calculations

Based on EAD and farthest listening point,
can calculate the needed acoustic gain (NAG)
of the sound system
Needed acoustic gain calculation:
Level at actual/farthest distance =
Face-to-Face level desired (dB)
+ 20 log10 (Face-to-Face Distance = EAD)
20 log10 (Actual/Farthest Listening Distance)
NAG = (Face-to-Face level desired)
(Level at actual/farthest distance)

Acoustic Gain Calculations

Need to add to this a feedback stability
margin (FSM) of (at least) +6 dB
The number of open microphones (NOM)
reduces the system gain (doubling the
number of open microphones reduces the
system gain 3 dB)
Potential acoustic gain calculation:
PAG = 20 log10 D1 20 log10 D2
+ 20 log10 D0 20 log10 DS
FSM 10 log10 NOM

Acoustic Gain Calculations

Major points to remember:
Doubling/halving distance yields 6 dB change
10 dB change corresponds to doubling of
perceived loudness
PAG can be improved by
making the loudspeaker-to-microphone
distance (D1) as large as possible
making the loudspeaker-to-listener
distance (D2) as small as possible
making the talker-to-microphone distance
(DS) as small as possible
limiting the number of open microphones

Electrical Power Requirement

When SPL goal at a given listening distance
known, also need:
Sensitivity rating of loudspeaker (typically spec
as 1m on-axis with input of 1 electrical watt)
Acoustic level change/attenuation between
loudspeaker and farthest listening position

Example: 90 dB program level at listening

distance of 32 m outdoors
Loudspeaker sensitivity measured as 110 dB
Acoustic level change = 20 log (32) 30 dB
Add 10 dB for peak (program level) headroom
SPL required at source is 90 + 30 + 10 = 130 dB
Need 20 dB above 1 watt, or 10 (20/10) = 100 W

Transmission

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Transmission

Loudspeaker Choice and Placement

central cluster
+
+
+
+
+

excellent coverage
high intelligibility
high gain before feedback
smooth frequency response
good locality of reference
cluster needs to be large for long, narrow room
potential for interference in driver overlap regions
hard to hide architecturally
ugly hanging mess

Central Vertical Line Array

Loudspeaker Choice and Placement

split source / point and shoot
+
+
+
+

best if multi-channel
high intelligibility
potential solution for challenging room geometries
generally more aesthetically pleasing (but not
always)
potential for creating large interference zone
potential for loss of locality of reference
potential for limited frequency range over which
directional control is possible

Split Source / Point and Shoot

Loudspeaker Choice and Placement

distributed / delayed
+ good solution for large, absorptive rooms with low
ceilings
+ potential solution for challenging room geometries
+ potential solution for reinforcing distant zones
requires digital delays / multiple amplifiers
(expensive)
potential for loss of locality of reference
generally not well suited for rooms with high
ceilings (or that are highly reverberant)

Distributed / Delayed

Summary / Conclusions
There is no universal, one size fits all
solution to loudspeaker selection
When selecting loudspeakers for sound
system design project, compare and contrast
offerings from multiple manufacturers be
prepared to defend your choices