ABSTRACT
It is a common observation that good acoustics for speech and music are generally incompatible. Natural speech communication to the back of a concert hall is difficult, whereas music performed in a theatre sounds lifeless and dead. Thus far these differences can be explained just on the basis of the reverberation time. Optimum values of 1 second for speech and 2 seconds for symphonic music are often quoted. For good music acoustics, several different considerations need to be addressed of which the reverberation time is only one. The situation is simpler with speech. If speech is intelligible and background noise is not intrusive, dissatisfaction with finer points is unlikely. Many spaces with a reverberation time of close to 1 second work well for speech. This situation has led to a certain complacency in acoustic design of theatres. Several recent theatres, at least in Britain, have been built with poor speech intelligibility.
