Hearing-aid users and small children require loudspeaker-based audiometry for accurate coupling

Evidence

The primary motivation for using SFA is the limitations in headphone-conducted audiometry. The first limitation, for a certain group of test subjects, is the acoustic coupling between the sound source and the test subject. Depending on the type of hearing instrument and the microphone placement, it is often difficult to achieve a constant and controlled acoustic coupling between the audiometric headphones and the hearing instrument microphone. Small children might not tolerate the use of headphones, again causing uncontrolled acoustic coupling. The second limitation is the realism of the audiometric test. Testing in a sound field, in contrast to the use of headphones, takes into account the spatial attributes of sound and hearing and allows test conditions to more closely resemble real-life situations relevant to the patient. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2717

Categorization

• XREF: The uncontrolled coupling problem parallels the calibration and placement concerns in loudspeaker measurement and room acoustics discussed elsewhere; also connects to hearing-aid engineering design constraints.