Normal-hearing listeners require about 3 dB SNR improvement before tolerating one extra conversation

Evidence

On average, participants were not prepared to tolerate an additional conversation until the SNR had increased by at least 3 dB, and not prepared to tolerate more than one extra conversation until a 4 dB change in SNR, similar to the results in Sect. 3.1 . Though a change of one conversation is an arbitrary change, it is arguably a less arbitrary unit of meaningfulness than one point on a better/worse rating scale. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5697 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A detectable SNR change may not be subjectively meaningful to a listener; SNR must rise at least 3 dB before listeners tolerate one more conversation — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5697; Listener ratings of speech benefit only become significant once SNR change reaches 4 dB (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• SNR must rise at least 3 dB before listeners tolerate one more conversation #corroborates (1.00) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5697
• Conversation tolerance rises by one only after 3-4 dB SNR improvement #corroborates (0.95)
• A meaningful speech-in-noise benefit requires at least 6 dB of SNR improvement #complicates (0.72)