Threshold of Hearing and Equal-Loudness Relations for Pure Tones, and the Loudness Function

Abstract

During recent years a program of work has been in progress at the National Physical Laboratory with the objective of providing improved data on several aspects of subjective acoustics. In connection with standards for audiometry,measurements have been made of the threshold of hearing for pure tones by earphone listening, and these have since been extended to the case of listening in free field. Latterly a redetermination of the equal‐loudness relations for pure tones has been completed aimed at resolving discrepancies between former determinations and providing an improved basis for the establishment of a standard set of contours. These results apply to a large team of otologically normal observers, and cover the range from 25–15 000 cps and up to 130 db in sound pressure level. The results of this investigation enable the equivalent loudness of any pure tone to be expressed by simple formulas with coefficients varying smoothly with frequency. Considerable attention has also been devoted to the determination of the loudness scale, i.e., the function relating loudness level in phons to the magnitude of the loudness sensation expressed on the sone scale. An assessment of the experimental evidence has led to the formulation of a simple relation which appears adequate for practical purposes in noise measurement. Investigations are continuing on the determination of loudness levels of complex sounds from their objective spectra.