Why is it so hard to design a concert hall with excellent acoustics

Concert hall acoustics is a multidisciplinary research topic, although often people think that it is only measuring and analysing impulse responses. This paper goes beyond the room impulse responses and explains in particular the features of sound sources and listeners in a concert hall. In addition, the paper collects the recent research results on subjective evaluations and discusses how halls affect the music and the impressions that live listening produces to listeners. The aim of the paper is to explain why the acoustics of a concert hall are hard to design with conventional methods and what are the issues that would need more attention in future research.

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