The 10 best-sounding concert halls in the world

#2 Symphony Hall, Boston, USA

Symphony Hall is a shoebox hall with 2,625 seats. Designed by McKim, Mead and White, it opened in 1900.

Harvard Professor Wallace Clement Sabine helped plan the hall, introducing new techniques to measure and increase reverberation time.

"Even the first time that I conducted there, I was struck by its acoustics," Bruno Walter said about the hall. "It is the most noble of American concert halls."

#3 Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Concertgebouw is a shoebox hall with 1,974 seats. It opened in 1888.

Writes Tom Service for the Guardian: "I’ve never heard a performance in which the colours of textures of Debussy's marine onomatopoeia sounded so thrilling, in which the mere sound of a gong or a celesta was transfigured into musical poetry simply by being played in that space by those musicians."

#4 Konzerthaus Berlin, Germany

Konzerthaus Berlin is a shoebox hall with 1,600 seats. It opened as a theater in 1821.

After getting damaged in World War II, it reopened as a concert hall in 1984.

#5 Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, Japan

Tokyo Opera City is a shoebox hall with 1,632 seats. It opened in 1997.

#6 Stadtcasino Basel, Switzerland

Stadtcasino Basel is a shoebox hall with 1,500 seats. It opened in 1876.

#7 Symphony Hall, Birmingham, England

Symphony Hall is a variant on shoebox design with 2,262 seats. It opened in 1991.

#8 Culture and Congress Centre (KKL), Lucerne, Switzerland

KKL is a shoebox design with 1,840 seats. Designed by Jean Nouvel, it opened in 1998.

#9 St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, Wales

St. David’s Hall is a surround hall with 2,000 seats. It opened in 1982.

#10 Meyerson Center, Dallas, USA

Meyerson Center is a variant on shoebox design with 2,062 seats. Designed by I.M. Pei, it opened in 1989.

Bonus: Paris Philharmonie, France

"Paris Philharmonie should be considered because it seems promising so far," says Skålevik.

Paris Philharmonie is a surround hall with 2,400 seats. Designed by Jean Nouvel, it opened in 2014.

Bonus: Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Germany

"Elbphilharmonie Hamburg will obviously draw a lot of attention when opened," says Skålevik.

Elbphilharmonie is a surround hall with 2,100 seats. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, it will open in 2017.

Bonus: Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Moscow and Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg, Russia

"Beranek’s list does not have a single hall in Russia and they have excellent halls in Moscow and in St. Petersburg," notes acoustics expert Lokki Tapio.

Tchaikovsky Concert Hall has 1,505 seats. It opened in 1609.

Mariinsky Theatre has 1,609 seats. It opened in 1860.

Tapio also points to notable halls in "Stavanger, Budapest, Aalborg, etc." and notes that many new halls are opened all the time, "such as La Philharmonie de Paris, Elbphilharmonie, many halls in China."