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Measurements of earplug attenuation under supra-aural and circumaural headphones
Jennifer B Tufts1, Jillian V Palmer, Lynne Marshall
1Department of Communication Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-1085, USA. jennifer.tufts@uconn.edu
Objective:
Supra-aural audiometric headphones are generally not recommended for use in measuring the attenuation of earplugs, because contact between the headphone and pinna and/or earplug could alter the attenuation obtained, and because of concerns of non-comparability between modes of excitation from supra-aural headphones and the sound-field procedure required by the standardized method. In this study, we compared measurements of earplug attenuation obtained under Telephonics TDH-50P supra-aural headphones with measurements obtained under circumaural headphones designed expressly for such testing.
Design:
The attenuation of three types of earplugs (foam, premolded quadruple-flange, and custom-molded) was measured in a repeated-measures design.
Study Sample:
The study sample comprised 42 normal-hearing adults (21 females, 21 males).
Results:
With the foam earplugs, nearly all of the attenuation measurements under the supra-aural headphones fell within 10 dB of the measurements under the circumaural headphones. With the flange and custom earplugs, approximately 10% of individuals obtained spuriously high attenuation under the supra-aural headphones.
Conclusions:
We conclude that standard supra-aural audiometric headphones are suitable for measuring the attenuation provided by foam earplugs. However, supra-aural headphones should not be used to measure the attenuation of flange or custom-molded earplugs. The potential exists for substantial over-estimation of attenuation, especially of custom plugs.
