Based on the relative lack of research on the acoustic characteristics of traditional Gan opera theaters, this paper takes the Zhaomutang theater in Leping, Jiangxi Province, as a case study. By employing impulse response measurements and sound quality index evaluation, this work investigates and analyzes the sound field characteristics of the stage, front patio, Xiangtang, rear patio, and Qintang through field measurements. The results show that the small volume and low ceiling in the stage area lead to higher early reflections and enhanced self-auditory support for performers. The semi-enclosed Xiangtang space exhibits the best speech definition and music clarity. Although the front and rear patios are open-air, they still maintain moderate reverberation and sound energy intensity due to reflections from surrounding surfaces. In contrast, the Qintang has a relatively weak early sound energy because of its volume and functional constraints. Still, its overall reverberation time is not significantly different from that in the other areas. Comprehensive indices indicate that the Zhaomutang theater balances speech intelligibility and musical richness for multifunctional scenarios—ancestor worship, opera performances, and gatherings—thus providing an enhanced viewing experience. These findings offer critical reference points for the protection, restoration, and acoustic optimization of Gan Opera ancestral temple theaters and provide an empirical foundation for further investigation into the multi-space coupling characteristics of traditional theaters.

This study combines field measurements and ODEON simulations to explore the acoustic adaptation mechanism of the Zhaomutang theatre in northeastern Jiangxi during opera performances and family sacrifices. The theatre’s spatial sequence (stage, front patio, Xiangtang, rear patio, and Qintang) creates a progressive sound field through volume control and material reflection, and coordinates sound energy gain, early reflection, and reverberation attenuation. During the performance, the stage and auditorium obtain moderate reverberation and lateral reflection, ensuring the fullness of the Gan opera singing and speech intelligibility. During the sacrifice, the Qintang and rear patio achieve semantic focus by shortening the sound propagation path and concentrating early sound energy. At the same time, the peripheral space still maintains fundamental speech intelligibility and ritual atmosphere. This reveals how traditional architecture dynamically adjusts multifunctional acoustics through spatial sequence and material differentiation, thus filling the gap in the study of multi-scene acoustics of ancestral temple theatres.

Currently, there remains a lack of systematic quantitative analysis of the acoustic impact mechanism of ancestral temple theatres in relation to their core function of opera performance. This paper takes the Zhaomutang—a typical ancestral temple theatre in northeast Jiangxi—as an example, and comprehensively uses on-site mapping, impulse response testing, and ODEON three-dimensional sound field simulation to conduct acoustic sensitivity analysis on five key spatial elements of the theatre. The results show that the theatre has a hierarchical sound field pattern along its depth, characterized by “high in the front, low in the rear, stronger on the sides and weaker in the middle”. The front patio and the Xiangtang support the clarity of Gan opera dialogue and the fullness of singing through early lateral reflections and moderate reverberation (EDT of 0.8–1.1 s, C₈₀ of 3.2–6.1 dB). However, the rear patio and the Qintang show apparent loudness deficiency (G of −1.5–3.2 dB) and lack of spatial immersion (LF₈₀ below 0.23). The most effective optimization comes from the reconstruction of the geometric relationship between performers and audience: moving the performers forward and appropriately raising the stage and audience area floor can significantly shorten the rear area EDT and increase C₈₀ and G; in contrast, the improvement in sound quality brought about by adding a patio cover and raising the gables is minimal, and the changes in various parameters are generally less than 1 JND. Based on this, the “schedule priority—reversible intervention” acoustic maintenance strategy for living heritage is proposed, and it is suggested that reversible reflective components be set in the side corridor to specifically enhance the sense of immersion in the rear area sound field. The study constructs a quantitative correlation framework of space, materials, and sound field, providing methodological support and parameter basis for the acoustic assessment and protective utilization of ancestral temple theatres.

Under tightening resource and environmental constraints, exploring the synergy between new-type urbanization and water use efficiency is key to high-quality development in Central China. Using panel data for cities in Jiangxi (11) and Hunan (13) from 2013 to 2022, this study measures the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of water-coupling coordination in the two provinces. It also incorporates feedback mechanisms from Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory to explain the differences in the evolutionary trajectories of the two provinces from three dimensions: signal strength, transmission efficiency, and bottleneck nodes. The results show the following: (1) The urbanization processes in these two provinces have shifted from a phase of rapid growth to one of steady optimization, and water use efficiency has improved in both. Since 2016, Jiangxi Province has experienced fluctuations, moving from a decline to a recovery, while Hunan Province has seen a steady increase; however, disparities among regions within the provinces persist. (2) The evolutionary trajectories of coupling coordination between the two provinces show marked divergence: Hunan exhibits a pattern of “core responsiveness and peripheral lag,” while Jiangxi displays a “multi-point gradual response”. (3) The barriers in the two provinces are highly similar in nature, focusing on economic scale, capital investment, and labor. Although the same constraints exist, different response pathways lead to distinct patterns—Jiangxi’s passive adaptation results in a diffuse equilibrium, while Hunan’s proactive adjustment results in a polarized gradient. These findings identify two distinct pathways for urban-water system evolution in central China’s water-rich areas, advancing theoretical understanding of system adaptation while providing targeted policy references for regional high-quality development.

Near-field acoustic holography (NAH) provides an effective way to achieve wide-band, high-resolution visualization measurement of the sound insulation performance of building components. However, based on Green’s function, the microphone array’s inherent amplitude and phase mismatch errors will exponentially amplify the sound field inversion process, significantly reducing the measurement accuracy. To systematically evaluate this problem, this study combines numerical simulation with actual measurements in a soundproof room that complies with the ISO 10140 standard, quantitatively analyzes the influence of array system errors on NAH reconstructed sound insulation and acoustic images, and proposes an error correction strategy based on channel transfer function normalization. The research results show that when the array amplitude and phase mismatch mean values are controlled within 5% and 5°, respectively, the deviation of the weighted sound insulation measured by NAH can be controlled within 1 dB, and the error in the key frequency band of building sound insulation (200–1.6k Hz) does not exceed 1.5 dB; when the mismatch mean value increases to 10% and 10°, the deviation of the weighted sound insulation can reach 2 dB, and the error in the high-frequency band (≥1.6k Hz) significantly increases to more than 2.0 dB. The sound image shows noticeable spatial distortion in the frequency band above 250 Hz. After applying the proposed correction method, the NAH measurement results of the domestic microphone array are highly consistent with the weighted sound insulation measured by the standard method, and the measurement difference in the key frequency band is less than 1.0 dB, which significantly improves the reliability and applicability of low-cost equipment in engineering applications. In addition, the study reveals the inherent mechanism of differential amplification of system errors in the propagating wave and evanescent wave channels. It provides quantitative thresholds and operational guidance for instrument selection, array calibration, and error compensation of NAH technology in building sound insulation detection.