Table of Contents

Introduction
Part One: Understanding the Principles
1. Sound Reproduction
2. Preserving the Art
3. Sound in Rooms - Matters of Perspective
4. Sound Fields in Rooms
5. The Many Effects of Reflections
6. Reflections, Images, and the Precendence Effect
7. Impressions of Space
8. Imaging and Spatial Effects in Sound Reproduction
9. The Effects of Reflections on Sound Quality/Timbre
10. Reflections and Speech Intelligibility
11. Adaptation
12. Adjacent-Boundary and Loudspeaker Mounting Effects
13. Making (Bass) Waves - Below the Transition Frequency
14. Summary of Part One: Looking for a Way Forawrd

Part Two: Designing Listening Experiences
15. Multichannel Options for Music and Movies
16. Putting Theory Into Practice: Designing a Listening Experience
17. Loudspeakers I: Subjective Evaluations
18. Loudspeakers II: Objective Evaluations
19. Psychoacoustics - Explainging What We Measure and Hear
20. Closing the Loop: Predicting Listener Preferences from Measurements
21. Acoustical Materials and Devices
22. Designing Listening Experiences

References
Index

About the Author

Floyd E. Toole studied electrical engineering at the University of New Brunswick and at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London where he received a Ph.D. In 1965 he joined the National Research Council of Canada where he reached the position of Senior Research Officer in the Acoustics and Signal Processing Group. In 1991 he joined Harman International Industries Inc. as Corporate Vice President – Acoustical Engineering. In this position he worked with all Harman International companies and directed the Harman Research and Development Group, a central resource for technology development and subjective measurements, retiring in 2007. He is currently a consultant to Harman.


Dr. Toole’s research has focused on the acoustics and psychoacoustics of sound reproduction in small rooms, directed to improving engineering measurements, objectives for loudspeaker design and evaluation, and techniques for reducing variability at the loudspeaker / room / listener interface. For papers on these subjects he has received two AES Publications Awards and, for service to the society, the Board of Governors Award. For his achievements he has been recognized with both the AES Silver Medal (1996) and Gold Medal (2013) Awards. He is a Fellow and Past President of the AES, a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and a Fellow of CEDIA (Custom Design and Installarion Association). He has been awarded Lifetime Achievement awards by CEDIA and ALMA (Association of Loudspeaker Manufacturing & Acoustics International). He has recently written a book: "Sound Reproduction: the acoustics and psychoacoustics of loudspeakers and rooms." (Focal Press, 2008).