Sound Acoustics At one end of an empty room a balloon is popped which is heard by a listener at the opposite end of the room.
There are three key aspects to how the sound behaves which explain how it is heard by the listener: 1. After the bang, the listener hears the direct sound after a short delay. This sound will have travelled the shortest distance possible from the source to the listener. 2. Shortly after the arrival of the direct sound, waves that have been reflected (bounced) off one or more surfaces in the room will be heard. These are known as early reflections and depend on the surfaces and where the listener is in a room These reflections provide information to listener that is used to perceive the size of the space and the location of the source. If reflections are long they have further to travel could be perceived as having an echo effect.
3. Finally, after the early reflections have arrived, sound from many other reflection paths in all directions reach the listener. For example sound hitting objects and furniture surfaces in a room which blends the overall sound together. This effect is called reverberation and adds depth and space to sound.