Head shadowing and binaural hearing raise sensitivity by six decibels or more

Evidence

Note that this is for monaural listening to a sound presented at the front of the listener. For sounds presented on the listening side of the head, there is a rise in peak sensitivity of about 6 dB due to the increase in pressure caused by reflection from the head. There is also some evidence that the effect of hearing with two ears is to increase the sensitivity by between 3 and 6 dB. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 644

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains why head-related pressure and two-ear summation meaningfully boost audible sensitivity thresholds.
• XREF: connects to: Head-related pressure reflections and binaural hearing boost sensitivity by about 6-12 dB — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 634; Head shadowing gives roughly 6 dB interaural amplitude difference near 1.85 kHz; Head shadow gives one ear a better signal-to-noise ratio in typical listening — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1544

Broader Connections

• Head-related pressure reflections and binaural hearing boost sensitivity by about 6-12 dB #corroborates (0.95) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 634
• Head shadowing gives roughly 6 dB interaural amplitude difference near 1.85 kHz #exemplifies (0.85)
• Head shadow gives one ear a better signal-to-noise ratio in typical listening #expands (0.80) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1544