Hearing loss makes listener opinions unreliable no matter how experienced

Evidence

Hearing loss is an occupational hazard in many professions, unfortunately including professional audio. At the very least, mixers exposed to periods of very loud sound incur temporary hearing loss. Repetitions of such exposures result in permanent hearing loss. As illustrated in Section 3.2 and discussed in detail in Chapter 17, both of these seriously affect what is heard in mixes, and it is not consistent. Judgments of sound quality are impaired. Paradoxically, the people who do the mixes may not be the best judges of the results. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1246 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

In terms of “overall sound quality,” there is some disagreement between the groups. Those with normal hearing preferred all of the channels running at or close to reference levels; anything else is a degradation. Note that the difference between all three channels running at reference level, and the L and R loudspeakers attenuated by 3 dB, is trivial (and statistically insignificant). In total contrast, listeners with hearing disabilities, having difficulty understanding speech, clearly voted for progressively more monophonic sound. They obviously associated speech intelligibility with sound quality. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1437 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Aging degrades listening judgment reliability despite accumulated expertise.; Hearing-impaired professionals give confident but unreliable sound quality judgments.; Hearing-impaired listeners equate speech intelligibility with overall sound quality. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1437 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Even modest hearing loss increases variability in sound quality judgments #corroborates (0.85)
• Audio mixers’ occupational hearing loss can impair their sound-quality judgments #exemplifies (0.85) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1246
• Hearing-impaired listeners equate speech intelligibility with overall sound quality. #qualifies (0.80) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1437
• Subjective audio opinions can behave like facts when gathered under controlled conditions #contradicts (0.80)
• Listeners with hearing loss form a heterogeneous perceptual group, not a single category #qualifies (0.75) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1092
• Hearing loss impairs frequency selectivity beyond what stimulus level differences explain. #expands (0.75) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 558
• Hearing-impaired listeners gain half or less benefit from longer stimulus durations #expands (0.72) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1112
• Hearing loss severity drives listeners toward alternative acoustic cues for arousal #expands (0.72) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1377
• Hearing-impaired listeners need higher signal-to-noise ratios than normal hearers do #expands (0.72)
• Hearing loss widens critical bands and alters music perception itself #expands (0.70) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1897