Conference_programme: 18.4 - Office noise : psychological effects and room acoustic design
Lecture: Preferred sound masking spectrum
Author(s): Hongisto Valtteri, Oliva David
Summary:
Artificial sound masking is generally used in open-plan offices to improve speech privacy and to reduce distraction caused by speech sounds. Pseudorandom continuous noise filtered to a specific spectrum is most frequently used. The spectrum should be carefully chosen to achieve a balance between masking efficiency and pleasantness. The aim of this study was to determine the satisfaction of people to spectrally different broad-band sounds. Twenty three subjects rated the loudness, disturbance, pleasantness and three other variables of eleven spectrally different noises in laboratory conditions. All sounds were presented at 42 dB LAeq within 50-10000 Hz. The subjects were the most satisfied with spectra having emphasis on low frequencies. A sound having a slope of -7 … -9 dB per octave increment resulted in the highest satisfaction. Subjective ratings could be reasonably predicted by five noise indices. The results are expected to benefit in the design of masking sounds and the product development of other appliances.
Corresponding author
Name: Dr Valtteri Hongisto
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Country: Finland
