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Abstract
Objective: To establish reference hearing threshold levels for chirps and frequency-specific chirps. Design: Hearing thresholds were determined monaurally for broad-band chirps and octave-band chirps using the Etymotic Research, ER-3A insert earphone. The chirps were presented using two repetition rates, 20 and 90 stimuli/s, and with alternating polarity in blocks of one second duration. The test procedure and test conditions were in accordance with the recommendations given in Citation. The ascending method (Citation) was applied using a step size of 5 dB. The chirps were played back from a Tucker Davies Technologies System II, and a Matlab program controlled the test setup. The results are specified in dB peak-to-peak equivalent threshold sound pressure levels (dB peETSPL). Study sample: The test group consisted of 25 otologically-normal young adults (age 18–25 years). Results: The results are in good agreement with the results from another investigation of hearing thresholds using the same chirp stimuli, and the values for the octave-band chirps are in line with the standardized reference values for corresponding tone bursts (Citation). Conclusions: The results of the present investigation are relevant for the international standard on short duration signals, Citation.
Acknowledgements
The present article is based on data from a student project by the first author: Kristian Gøtsche-Rasmussen, The determination of the behavioural threshold of chirps and frequency-specific chirps with an Etymotic Research ER-3A insert earphone. Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2009 (in Danish).
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
However, it should be noted that Claus Elberling is employed by, but has no other financial interest in, the WDH Group, which includes Oticon A/S, Grason-Stadler, Interacoustics, Maico Diagnostics, and a number of other companies.