Calculation Results
About This Calculator
Calculate room acoustic reverberation time (RT60 in seconds), total metric/imperial sabins, and acoustic panel absorption requirements for home studios, podcasting, and home theaters.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is RT60 in acoustics?
RT60 is the time in seconds required for sound energy inside an enclosed space to decay by 60 decibels (one-millionth of its original sound pressure level) after the sound source has stopped.
What is the Sabine reverberation formula?
Developed by Wallace Clement Sabine, the formula is RT60 = 0.049 * V / A (in imperial feet, or 0.161 * V / A in metric meters), where V is room volume and A is total absorption in sabins.
What RT60 is recommended for a home music studio vs home theater?
A control room or podcast recording studio targets an RT60 between 0.30 and 0.40 seconds for acoustic precision. A dedicated home theater targets 0.45 to 0.60 seconds to balance speech intelligibility with surround sound immersion.
What is a Sabin?
A Sabin is a unit of sound absorption equal to one square foot of a 100% absorbing surface (such as an open window). A 2'x4' acoustic fiberglass panel (8 sq ft) with an absorption coefficient of 0.85 provides 6.8 Sabins of absorption.