A tone and wideband noise of very different levels can equally sound loud

Evidence

To illustrate the process of the loudness model, two example stimuli are shown as they are passed through the different steps of the model in Figure 4–8. Each of these example stimuli has a similar loudness, in order to show how the loudness model might predict the loudness of two sounds that are very different in overall level and bandwidth. The first sound is a 57 dB SPL, 1000-Hz tone, and the second is a band-limited noise with a total power of about 43 dB SPL. These two sounds are similar in their loudness and loudness levels, which are 3.4 sones and 56.8 phons, respectively, as determined by the loudness model. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 780

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to spectral loudness summation and the channel-based loudness model concepts elsewhere in psychoacoustics reading; also connects to how hearing aids must compress versus amplify different bandwidths.