ABSTRACT
With musical or spoken performances in auditoriums and concert halls, acoustic evaluation is mainly based on the subjec t ive percep t ion of audience and performers. These judgements are generally not based on defined criteria, but characterize the sensed tonal perception. Besides the secondary factors influencing the overall acoustic impression like, for instance, comfortableness of the seats; air conditioning; interference level; and optical, architectural, and stylistic impression, it is especially the expectation of the listener that plays a significant role for the acoustic evaluation. If a listener in a classical concert is sitting next to the woodwind instruments but hears the brass instruments much louder, even though he cannot see them, his expectations as a listener, and thus the acoustics are off. Numerous subjective and objective room-acoustical criteria were defined and their correlation determined in order to objectify these judgments. However, these individual criteria are closely linked with each other and their acoustic effects can neither be exchanged nor individually altered. They become effective for judgment only in their weighted totality. The judgment of the performers, on the other hand, can be regarded as a kind of workplace evaluation.
