Abstract
Sound pressure level in-situ measurements are sensitive to standing-wave pressure minima and have the potential to result in over-amplification with risk to residual hearing in hearing-aid fittings. Forward pressure level (FPL) quantifies the pressure traveling toward the tympanic membrane and may be a potential solution as it is insensitive to ear-canal pressure minima. Derivation of FPL is dependent on a Thevenin-equivalent source calibration technique yielding source pressure and impedance. This technique is found to accurately decompose cavity pressure into incident and reflected components in both a hard-walled test cavity and in the human ear canal through the derivation of a second sound-level measure termed integrated pressure level (IPL). IPL is quantified by the sum of incident and reflected pressure amplitudes. FPL and IPL were both investigated as measures of sound-level entering the middle ear. FPL may be a better measure of middle-ear input because IPL is more dependent on middle-ear reflectance and ear-canal conductance. The use of FPL in hearing-aid applications is expected to provide an accurate means of quantifying high-frequency amplification.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 3114-3124 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of the Acoustical Society of America |
Volume | 126 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2009 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Acoustics and Ultrasonics