Continuous loudness curves assume the ear has hundreds of movable critical-band filters

Evidence

Specific loudness as a function of critical-band rate is given in all of the figures as a cont.inuous curve. This corresponds to the very fine frequency resolution of our hearing system. Critical bands have been used as if they can be shift.ed along the critical-band rate t.o any place. In many practical cases however, it may not be necessary to have as many as 640 critical-band filters (corresponding to t. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1285