Loud signals degrade frequency resolution but 10-15% bandwidth is a fair design rule

Evidence

The bandwidth of hearing also changes with level: the higher the level, the poorer the frequency resolution, as discussed previously. However, for acoustic communication technologies, it seems to be a fair assumption that the frequency window in human hearing used in the spectral analysis of complex sound signals is around 10–15% of the centre frequency. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1048

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Offers a usable constant for audio engineering and acoustic communication system design.

Related

• A 10-15 percent bandwidth window serves spectral analysis for audio tech (similarity 0.92)
• Human spectral analysis resolution runs about 10–15 percent of center frequency (similarity 0.89)
• Loudness stays constant below critical bandwidth then grows beyond it (similarity 0.84)
• Auditory critical bandwidth stays constant at 100 Hz below 500 Hz then rises proportionally. (similarity 0.84)
• Critical bandwidth varies a hundredfold across the audible range. (similarity 0.84)
• Humans detect level changes of about 1 dB at moderate volumes (similarity 0.82)
• Loudness is not reducible to sound pressure level or signal power (similarity 0.82)
• Loudness grows with bandwidth via area tradeoff except at extreme levels (similarity 0.82)
• Typical one-metre speech at 60-70 dB is optimally tuned for auditory communication (similarity 0.82)
• Critical bandwidth at 1 kHz is 160 Hz and governs loudness behavior (similarity 0.82)
• Hearing’s fine frequency resolution may be modeled at coarser steps in practice (similarity 0.82)
• Loudness rises once noise bandwidth exceeds the critical band at constant SPL. (similarity 0.82)
• Louder signals need disproportionately more dB to double perceived loudness (similarity 0.81)
• Required audio fidelity scales with the application’s communicative demands (similarity 0.81)
• Human hearing is most sensitive to sounds around 3-4 kHz. (similarity 0.81)