The dynamic range of hearing is largest between 500 and 6000 Hz

Evidence

An illustration of Wegel’s representation is shown in Figure 1–5, which plots both auditory threshold (minimum audibility) and the threshold of feeling (maximum audibility), measured in more than 40 people. Wegel defined the range between the minimum audibility and maximum audibility curves as the sensation area. Wegel’s sensation area had an elliptical shape because both the minimum and maximum audibility curves were frequency dependent. Today, we would call the sensation area the dynamic range of hearing. From Wegel’s data, we see that the dynamic range of hearing was frequency dependent and was the largest in the mid-frequency range (e.g., about 500–6000 Hz). — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 94

Categorization

• XREF: Dynamic range of hearing connects to loudness growth and recruitment concepts if later chapters address hearing-impaired loudness perception. — connects to: Normal hearing is most sensitive near 2 to 5 kHz — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 168; Human hearing’s 120-dB dynamic range exceeds man-made device capabilities; The ear’s full dynamic range exists only near 4 kHz — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 612
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 94

Broader Connections

• The ear’s full dynamic range exists only near 4 kHz #corroborates (0.90) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 612