A 10-15 percent bandwidth window serves spectral analysis for audio tech

Evidence

The bandwidth of hearing also changes with level: the higher the level, the poorer the frequency resolution, as discussed previously. However, for acoustic communication technologies, it seems to be a fair assumption that the frequency window in human hearing used in the spectral analysis of complex sound signals is around 10–15% of the centre frequency. This is not to be confused with the other frequency scale in humans, the pitch scale, which will be discussed in the next chapter. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1048

Categorization

• XREF: This rule of thumb underlies perceptual audio codec filterbank design and psychoacoustic models — an applied takeaway for the reader.