Questions relative to fabrics found in movie theaters

[highfigh]

Sound should be natural. If you look through a window, you should see exactly what is outside. If the window is blue, then you have colored your perspective. Same thing with sound. Every part of the signal chain, including the room, should be neutral, if accurate reproduction is your goal.

'Natural', to whom? Using your window view analogy, do all people see colors the same and in focus, equally? No, and we don't all hear equally well. Electronics can be neutral, acoustics rarely isn't. Change the temperature, humidity, air pressure- the sound will change. Might not be very obvious, but it will change. Add or subtrack furniture, close doors & windows and have people coming & going, the sound will change. Sound isn't static, it's variable.

 

[highfigh]

It has no aesthetic purpose.

How do you like your leather seats acoustically?

If someone is sitting on one of those seats, the material doesn't matter- the person is absorbing the sound.

I used 'Sabine' in a previous post- theater seats are made to have the same effect on sound as a person, so the number of filled seats won't matter.

What is a Sabine in acoustics? - Birdful

A Sabine is a unit used to measure reverberation time in acoustics. Reverberation time refers to how long it takes for sound to decay or fade away after the

www.birdful.org

 

[ScareDe2]

If someone is sitting on one of those seats, the material doesn't matter- the person is absorbing the sound.

I used 'Sabine' in a previous post- theater seats are made to have the same effect on sound as a person, so the number of filled seats won't matter.

What is a Sabine in acoustics? - Birdful

A Sabine is a unit used to measure reverberation time in acoustics. Reverberation time refers to how long it takes for sound to decay or fade away after the

www.birdful.org

Let's talk about it. I can't use a pre-measured table of absorption coefficients for a given fabric. Since the fabric varies in density and quality, it varies in its ability to impact sound. Also, Sabine tries to predict the reverberation for the entire room but doesn't take into account the listener's position, whether the sound is chaotically diffused rather than uniformly distributed, your speaker setup, etc., and of course, as the website says: it all depends on what sound you are after.

I see acoustics more as an art, where it's better to use your ear and taste. Maybe measurements can complement the work, but I don't see how I can do that myself. I only work with limited information and have no tool to measure reverberation here.

Although I like that it mentions soft fabric. One reason I think movie theaters today sound bad compared to vintage (at least the ones I’ve visited) is because they use more synthetic fabric, which is most cost-efficient. I know for a fact that some companies sell products advertised as professional material, and you said it yourself, while in fact—and you don't need any measuring tools to find out—their material has zero impact on the sound, and in some cases, it even worsens the acoustics.