Comparison of the Auditec and Rintelmann recordings of the NU-6

Word discrimination scores were obtained for 30 normally hearing listeners using Auditec and Rintelmann recordings of the NU-6 presented at 60 and 70 dB SPL in quiet and in a background of multitalker noise at signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios of +12, +6, 0, and -6 dB. This was done to obtain normative data and to determine whether these two recordings of the same word lists were equivalent at conversational levels in quiet and in a noisy background. The word discrimination scores for each recording in quiet and at each S/N ratio were not significantly different when presented at 60 and 70 dB SPL. However, the word discrimination scores were significantly poorer as the S/N ratio became more severe, and the scores obtained with the Auditec recording were significantly poorer than those obtained with the Rintelmann recording at each S/N ratio. These differences between word discrimination scores using the Auditec and Rintelmann recordings were primarily attributed to the recorded level of the test word and secondarily attributed to carrier phrase and talker differences.