Noise Surveys of Cocktail Parties

This paper discusses and enlarges on a recent theoretical paper by W.R. MacLean on the acoustics of cocktail parties. The discussion is supported by experimental evidence accumulated during the past two years. MacLean's analysis suggests that there is a critical density of participants above which a “quiet” cocktail party becomes abruptly “noisy.” It would appear that one might actually plan a quiet or noisy party as required (assuming control over the number of participants). Unfortunately the cases studied experimentally do not show this quiet‐noisy transition, and it is believed that factors not considered in the theory result in a blurring of the distinction. Indications are that there is a gradual increase in sound level to a saturation value that is independent of the properties of the room, the beverages served, and the number of participants. There is, however, dependence on the sex of the participants.