Revised estimate of minimum audible pressure: Where is the ’’missing 6 dB’’?

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Abstract
Eardrum pressures at hearing threshold [in man] were calculated from earphone data (ISO R389-1964 and ANSI S3.6-1969) and free-field data (ISO R226-1961). When head diffraction, external-ear resonance and an apparent flaw in ISO R226 were accounted for in the free-field data, and real-ear vs. coupler differences and physiological noise were accounted for in the earphone data, the agreement between the 2 derivations was good. At the audiometric frequencies of 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 and 8000 Hz, the estimated eardrum pressures at absolute threshold are 30, 19, 12, 9, 15, 13 and 14 dB SPL [sound pressure level], respectively. Except for the effects of physiological noise at low frequencies, no evidence of the missing 6 dB was seen, an observation consistent with the experimental results of several recent studies.

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