Interference matching speech’s fluctuation rate is more distracting than its level predicts.

Evidence

There may be situations where acoustic treatment may be essential before sound reinforcement is attempted. Interfering noises which have similar rates of variation as speech are particularly difficult to deal with as they fool our higher order processing centers into attending to them as if they are speech. Because of this their effect is often more severe than a simple measurement of level would indicate. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 2471

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: why some noise is unbearably irritating at low levels while louder noise is tolerable — perceptual capture rather than loudness.