Audibility threshold dependence on frequency and level

Audibility thresholds (LT) of six tones in different types of masking noise were established according

to the procedure in Section 5.5. The audibility threshold contours are shown in blue in Figure 6.1 and Figure 6.2, for the outdoor and indoor scenarios respectively. These figures also contain the masking thresholds calculated using ISO 1996-2. Figure 6.3 shows the data for the background noise level in the room without masking. All three figures also contain recently published hearing threshold data (ISO 389-7). Generally, audibility threshold decreases with increasing frequency regardless of the masking noise spectrum or level for the types of masking noise used in this experiment. The same trend can be observed for the hearing threshold.

In the outdoor scenario the audibility thresholds exceed the hearing threshold by at least 5 dB for all frequencies. The slope of the hearing threshold is steeper than the audibility threshold. This is due to the nature of the masking spectra where SPL/bandwidth decreases significantly below 30 Hz. The masking threshold calculated by the ISO 1996-2 standard is close to the measured audibility thresholds at all frequencies. The largest differences of up to 5 dB are observed for the frequencies 180 and 400 Hz whereas the low frequencies are within 2 dB. The measured audibility threshold is therefore clearly governed by the masking and will be referred to as the measured masking threshold. This finding is supported by Figure 6.4 a) that shows the outdoor masking threshold to be in excess of 10 dB above the measured audibility threshold in quiet.

In the indoor scenario the situation is less clear. The measured audibility threshold values are all above or equal to the published hearing threshold in Figure 6.2 and the calculated masking threshold at low frequencies does not match the audibility threshold as well as in the outdoor scenario. The comparison in Figure 6.4 makes that situation even clearer for low masking levels: When the A-weighted wind turbine level LAeq,WT equals 39 dB(A), the confidence intervals in

Figure 6.4a) all suggest that the measured audibility thresholds in masking could be identical to the audibility thresholds in quiet. The higher the masking level LAeq,WT the more reliably is the measured

Figure 6.1: Outdoor scenario – Masking thresholds (blue), equal annoyance to 180 Hz tone at 5 dB audibility (green) and 10 dB audibility (red) of low frequency tones within masking noises as labelled. Additional green and red dots at 180 Hz denote the results from the masking comparisons discussed in

Section 6.4 (for 5 dB and 10 dB above Lpn respectively). Black solid line: Hearing threshold according to ISO 389-7). Dashed black line: Masking threshold according to ISO 1996-2. Error bars denote 95%

confidence intervals.

Figure 6.2 Indoor Scenario – Masking thresholds (blue), equal annoyance to 180 Hz tone at 5 dB audibility (green) and 10 dB audibility (red) of low frequency tones within façade attenuated masking

noises as labelled. Black solid line: Hearing threshold according to ISO 389-7. Dashed black line: Masking threshold according to ISO 1996-2. Error bars denote 95% confidence intervals.

101 102 103 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 WT 39 dB(A) 101 102 103 WT 44 dB(A) 101 102 103 WT 49 dB(A) 101 102 103 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 T one S P L ( dB r e 20 µ P a) GN & WT 39 dB(A) 101 102 103 Frequency (Hz) GN & WT 44 dB(A) 101 102 103 GN & WT 49 dB(A) 101 102 103 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 T one S P L ( dB r e 20 µ Pa WT 39 dB(A) 101 102 103 Frequency (Hz) WT 44 dB(A) 101 102 103 WT 49 dB(A)

Figure 6.3 Room background without masking noise - Audibility threshold (blue), equal annoyance to 180 Hz tone at 5 dB audibility (green) and 10 dB audibility (red) of low frequency tones. Black solid line: Hearing threshold according to ISO 389-7 (2005). Error bars denote 95% confidence intervals

While the audibility threshold in quiet agrees very well with the published hearing threshold ISO 389-7 (2005) between 72 Hz and 180 Hz, the hearing threshold exceeds the audibility threshold at lower frequencies and is lower at 400 Hz. The higher audibility threshold at 400 Hz might be an effect of the room. Figure 6.6 shows that the loudspeakers, when not playing, contribute some sound power in that particular band. This could not be heard as the figure indicates. But being so close to the masking threshold it might have masked the 400 Hz tone to some degree and might have caused the audibility of the 400 Hz tone to be about 5 dB higher than it would have been in the room with the loudspeakers turned off. This needs to be kept in mind when interpreting the audibility thresholds in Figure 6.2 and Figure 6.3. The audibility thresholds toward lower frequencies deviate from the published hearing threshold by about 5 dB. It is interesting to note that this deviation is larger than that reported by Fastl & Zwicker (2007, Fig. 2.4). The presented results have been found to be statistically significant. The method and results as well as non significant effects can be found in Appendix VII.

In the indoor scenario where both the lowest and highest frequencies were observed to be very close to the audibility threshold in quiet the deviation between audibility thresholds and masking threshold can be in excess of 6 dB. In these cases it would be more appropriate to evaluate the hearing threshold than the masking threshold.