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Equal-loudness contour
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An equal-loudness contour is a measure of sound pressure (dB SPL), over the frequency
spectrum, for which a listener perceives a constant loudness when presented with pure
steady tones. The unit of measurement for loudness levels is the phon, and is arrived at by
reference to equal-loudness contours. By definition two sine waves, of differing
frequencies, are said to have equal-loudness level measured in phons if they appear
equally loud to the average young person without significant hearing impairment.

Equal-loudness contours are often referred to as "Fletcher-Munson"' curves, after the

earliest experimenters, but this is now incorrect, the definitive curves being those defined
in the international standard ISO 226:2003 which are based on a review of several
modern determinations made in various countries.

Contents
 1 Experimental determination
 2 Recent revision aimed at more precise determination - ISO 226:2003
  3 Side versus frontal presentation
 4 Headphones versus loudspeaker testing
 5 Relevance to sound level measurement and noise measurement
 6 See also
 7 Notes
 8 References

 9 External links

Experimental determination
The human auditory system is sensitive to frequencies from about 20 Hz to a maximum
of around 20,000 Hz, although the upper hearing limit decreases with age. Within this
range, the human ear is most sensitive between 1 and 5 kHz, largely due to the resonance
of the ear canal and the transfer function of the ossicles of the middle ear.

Equal-loudness contours were first measured by Fletcher and Munson using headphones
(1933). In their study, listeners were presented with pure tones at various frequencies and
over 10 dB increments in stimulus intensity. For each frequency and intensity, the listener
was also presented with a reference tone at 1000 Hz. The reference tone was adjusted
until it was perceived to be of the same loudness as the test tone. Loudness, being a
psychological quantity, is difficult to measure, so Fletcher and Munson averaged their
results over many test subjects to derive reasonable averages. The lowest equal-loudness
contour represents the quietest audible tone and is also known as the absolute threshold of
hearing. The highest contour is the threshold of pain.

A second determination was carried out by Churcher and King in 1937, but these two
investigations showed considerable discrepancies over parts of the auditory diagram.[1]

A new experimental determination was made by Robinson and Dadson (1956) which was
believed to be more accurate, and this became the basis for a standard (ISO 226) which
was considered definitive until 2003, when the standard was revised on the basis of
recent assessments by research groups worldwide.

Recent revision aimed at more precise determination -

ISO 226:2003
Because of perceived discrepancies between early and more recent determinations, the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently revised its standard curves
as defined in ISO 226, in response to the recommendations of a study coordinated by the
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, Japan. The study
produced new curves by combining the results of several studies, by researchers in Japan,
Germany, Denmark, UK, and USA. (Japan was the greatest contributor with about 40%
of the data.) This has resulted in the recent acceptance of a new set of curves standardized
as ISO 226:2003. The report comments on the surprisingly large differences, and the fact
that the original Fletcher-Munson contours are in better agreement with recent results
than the Robinson-Dadson, which appear to differ by as much as 10–15 dB especially in
the low-frequency region, for reasons that are not explained.[2]

Side versus frontal presentation

Equal-loudness curves derived using headphones are valid only for the special case of
what is called 'side-presentation', which is not how we normally hear. Real-life sounds
arrive as planar wavefronts, if from a reasonably distant source. If the source of sound is
directly in front of the listener, then both ears receive equal intensity, but at frequencies
above about 1 kHz the sound that enters the ear canal is partially reduced by the masking
effect of the head, and also highly dependent on reflection off the pinna (outer ear). Off-
centre sounds result in increased head masking at one ear, and subtle changes in the effect
of the pinna, especially at the other ear. This combined effect of head-masking and pinna
reflection is quantified in as set of curves in three-dimensional space referred to as head-
related transfer functions (HRTFs). Frontal presentation is now regarded as preferable
when deriving equal-loudness contours, and the latest ISO standard is specifically based
on frontal and central presentation.

The Robinson-Dadson determination used loudspeakers, and for a long time the
difference from the Fletcher-Munson curves was explained partly on the basis that the
latter used headphones. However, the ISO report actually lists the latter as using
"compensated" headphones, though how this was achieved is not made clear.

Headphones versus loudspeaker testing

Good headphones, well sealed to the ear, can provide a very flat low-frequency pressure
response measured at the ear canal, with low distortion even at high intensities, and at
low frequencies the ear is purely pressure sensitive and the cavity formed between
headphones and ear is too small to introduce any modifying resonances. Headphone
testing is therefore a good way to derive equal-loudness contours below about 500 Hz,
although reservations have been expressed about the validity of headphone measurements
when determining the actual threshold of hearing, based on observation that closing off
the ear canal produces increased sensitivity to the sound of blood flow within the ear
which appears to be cleverly cancelled by the brain in normal listening conditions[citation
needed]
. It is at high frequencies that headphone measurement gets dubious, and the various
resonances of pinnae (outer ear) and ear canal are severely affected by proximity to the
headphone cavity.

With speakers, exactly the opposite is true, a flat low-frequency response being very hard
to obtain except in free space high above ground or in a very large and anechoic chamber
free from reflections down to 20 Hz. Until recently it was not possible to achieve high
levels at frequencies down to 20 Hz without high levels of harmonic distortion, and even
today the best speakers are likely to generate around 1 to 3% of total harmonic distortion,
corresponding to 30 to 40 dB below fundamental. This is not really good enough, given
the steep rise in loudness (of 6 to 10 dB per octave) with frequency revealed by the equal-
loudness curves below about 50 Hz, and a good experimenter must ensure that trial
subjects really are hearing the fundamental and not harmonics, especially the third
harmonic which will be especially pronounced as speaker cones become limited in travel
as their suspensions reach the limit of compliance. A possible way around the problem is
to use acoustic filtering, such as by resonant cavity, in the speaker setup.

A flat free-field high-frequency response up to 20 kHz, on the other hand, is

comparatively easy to achieve with modern speakers on-axis. These facts have to be
borne in mind when comparing results of various attempts to measure equal-loudness
contours.

Relevance to sound level measurement and noise

measurement
Although the A-weighting curve, in widespread use for noise measurement, is said to
have been based on the 40-phon Fletcher–Munson curve, research in the 1960s
demonstrated that determinations of equal-loudness made using pure tones are not
directly relevant to our perception of noise.[3] This is because the cochlea in our inner ear
analyses sounds in terms of spectral content, each "hair-cell" responding to a narrow band
of frequencies known as a critical band. The high-frequency bands are wider in absolute
terms than the low frequency bands, and therefore "collect" proportionately more power
from a noise source. However, when more than one critical band is stimulated, the
outputs of the various bands are summed by the brain to produce an impression of
loudness. For these reasons Equal-loudness curves derived using noise bands show an
upwards tilt above 1 kHz and a downward tilt below 1 kHz when compared to the curves
derived using pure tones.

Various weighting curves were derived in the 1960s, in particular as part of the DIN 4550
standard for audio quality measurement, which differed from the A-weighting curve,
showing more of a peak around 6 kHz, and these were found to give a more meaningful
subjective measure of noise on audio equipment; especially on the newly invented
compact cassette tape recorders with Dolby noise reduction which were characterised by
a noise spectrum dominated by high frequencies.

The BBC research department conducted listening trials in an attempt to find the best
weighting curve and rectifier combination for use when measuring noise in broadcast
equipment, examining the various new weighting curves in the context of noise rather
than tones, confirming that they were much more valid than A-weighting when
attempting to measure the subjective loudness of noise. This work also investigated the
response of human hearing to tone-bursts, clicks, pink noise and a variety of other sounds
which, because of their brief impulsive nature, do not give the ear and brain sufficient
time to respond. The results were reported in BBC Research Report EL-17 1968/8
entitled The Assessment of Noise in Audio Frequency Circuits.

The ITU-R 468 noise weighting curve, originally proposed in CCIR recommendation
468, but later adopted by numerous standards bodies (IEC, BSI, JIS, ITU was based on
the BBC Research, and incorporates a special Quasi-peak rectifier to account for our
reduced sensitivity to short bursts and clicks.[4] It is widely used by Broadcasters and
audio professionals when measuring noise on broadcast paths and audio equipment,
enabling subjectively valid comparisons of different equipment types to be made even
though they have different noise spectra and characteristics.

See also
 Audiometry
 Audiogram
 CCIR (ITU) 468 Noise Weighting
 dB(A)
 Listener fatigue
 Pure tone audiometry
 Sound level meter

Notes
1. ^ D W Robinson et al., "A re-determination of the equal-loudness relations for
pure tones", Br. J. Appl. Phys. 7 (1956), pp.166–181.
2. ^ Yôiti Suzuki, et al., "Precise and Full-range Determination of Two-dimensional
Equal Loudness Contours".
3. ^ Bauer, B., Torick, E., "Researches in loudness measurement", IEEE
Transactions on Audio and Electroacoustics, Vol. 14:3 (Sep 1966), pp.141–151.
4. ^ Ken’ichiro Masaoka, Kazuho Ono, and Setsu Komiyama, "A measurement of
equal-loudness level contours for tone burst", Acoustical Science and Technology,
Vol. 22 (2001) , No. 1 pp.35–39.

References
 Audio Engineer's Reference Book, 2nd Ed., 1999, edited Michael Talbot Smith,
Focal Press.
 An Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing 5th ed, Brian C.J. Moore, Elsevier
Press.

External links
 ISO Standard
  Precise Determination of Equal Loudness Contours - Basis of ISO 226:2003)
 Fletcher-Munson is not Robinson-Dadson (PDF)
 Full Revision of International Standards for Equal-Loudness Level Contours (ISO
226)
 Test your hearing - A tool for measuring your equal-loudness contours
 Equal-loudness contour measurements in detail
 Evaluation of Loudness-level weightings and LLSEL JASA
 A Measurement of Equal-Loudness Level Contours for Tone Burst
 A Model of Loudness Applicable to Time-Varying Sounds AESJ Article
 Researches in loudness measurement by CBS using noise bands, 1966 IEEE
Article
 Auditory Theory - Santa Fe College Lectures

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