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KMID : 0921420110160030408
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Korean Journal of Communication Disorders
2011 Volume.16 No. 3 p.408 ~ p.415
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Effects of Earphone Style and Noise Environment on Listening Levels when Using Portable Music Players in the Laboratory
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Kim Kun-Woo
Jung Jae-Yun
Suh Myung-Whan
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Abstract
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Background & Objectives: Recently, the widespread use of portable listening devices (PLD) has increased concern about juvenile noise-induced hearing loss. When a PLD is used in noisy environments, the user will listen to louder music than usual. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the influence of earphone style on preferred listening levels (PPLs). Furthermore, we assessed which type of earphone is least damaging to the inner ear.
Methods: There were two independent variables in this study: earphone style (ear-bud, ear-canal, and on-the-ear) and noise environment (quiet, street noise, and talking noise). Twenty-five participants listened to the same song with different earphone styles in different noise environments. The participants controlled the PLD volume switch as they wished, and the PPL was recorded with the Real Ear Measurement system.
Results: In the quiet environment, the ear-bud earphone and ear-canal earphone had similar PLL values. However, in the street noise and talking noise environments, the ear-canal earphone had the lowest PLL and the on-the-ear earphone had the highest PLL. The PLL was lowest in the quiet environment and highest in the talking noise environment.
Discussion & Conclusions: The ear-canal earphone style seems to be the best earphone style for providing comfortable music listening with the lowest sound pressure level.
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KEYWORD
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portable listening devices, noise-induced hearing loss, preferred listening level, earphone, noise environments
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