Louder maskers increasingly mask high frequencies over low ones.

Evidence

At low amplitude levels, the masking effect tends to be similar for frequencies above and below fmasker. As the amplitude of the masker is raised, the low masks high effect increases and the resulting masking level curve becomes increasingly asymmetric. Thus the masking effect is highly dependent on the amplitude of the masker. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1638

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Lips on masking asymmetry; connects to equal-loudness contours and the audibility curve from earlier chapters.

Related

• Masking asymmetry grows as masker amplitude increases, favoring upward masking (similarity 0.95)
• Low-frequency maskers mask high-frequency signals more than the reverse, and this worsens with intensity. (similarity 0.90)
• Tonal masker spread inverts from low to high frequencies as masker level rises (similarity 0.89)
• Masking operates on a continuous scale between audible and fully masked. (similarity 0.89)
• The masked threshold’s high-frequency slope steepness depends on masker level (similarity 0.89)
• Equal-level narrow-band maskers mask less at higher centre frequencies (similarity 0.88)
• Each masker dominates masking only within its own frequency region. (similarity 0.88)
• Masking reduces to a comparison of excitation-level patterns over frequency and time (similarity 0.88)
• Masking spreads from a noise band to tones further away as masker level rises (similarity 0.88)
• Masked threshold shape changes with masker level, becoming more asymmetric at high levels (similarity 0.87)
• Masking acts within critical bandwidths, leaving distant-frequency sounds unaffected (similarity 0.87)
• Masking noise raises the loudness threshold and fades audible tones (similarity 0.87)
• Upward masking makes intermodulation difference tones more audible than harmonics (similarity 0.87)
• Masking relates closely to excitation level patterns. (similarity 0.86)
• Increasing stimulus level broadens auditory filters and causes upward spread of masking (similarity 0.86)