[linux-audio-user] measuring sound volume

[davidrclark at earthlink.net]

Patrick,

> Do you mean the layout of the systems?

Sorry but no, I meant the pattern of the individual speakers or a cluster
of them --- however they are packaged.  The inverse square law that 
Steve Harris mentioned would result in a spherical pattern from a point
source.  If you took a slice of that, it would be a circle.  The sound
pattern of most real speakers don't look like that.  They have quite 
"distorted" shapes.  If you laid these out according to the layout of the
system, you could get some idea of the sound pattern, but it would
be neglecting boundaries, wave interference, etc.  It looks to me, from
another post, that Mark Knecht may have some more words of wisdom here.
Certain types of speakers should be similar enough that rules of thumb
and prior experience may be very helpful.