[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [AUDITORY] Psychoacoustics with active-noise cancelling headphones



Hi Guillaume,

I would discourage you from using active noise cancelling headphones for psychoacoustic experiments due to their unpredictable nature -- the noise attenuation typically involves some phase inversion of the surrounding background noise (your stimuli are not immune to that), they are really only efficient for lower frequencies, and their output will change with the change in the background noise.  Ensuing is the loss of experimental control.  

Instead, you could use insert earphones (as Neil suggested) and use earmuffs designed for hearing protection over the insert phones.  You'll get greater combined attenuation than from any active noise attenuating headphones, and no unpredictability associated with the use of the latter.

marcin


                                                                                                                                                
We must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it. It must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always the chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for mankind. 

Maria Skłodowska-Curie


On Mon, Sep 17, 2018 at 11:19 PM Guillaume Lemaitre <guillaumejlemaitre@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear list,
I would like to know if someone has ever tried to conduct a psychoacoustics experiment with active-noise cancelling headphones.
I am wondering whether existing devices would be good enough to cancel out a wideband background noise (such as a train interior noise) and playback stimuli with sufficient accuracy.
I have been happy with insert earphones for experiments within an MRI scanner, but I wonder if less expensive consumer audio devices could do the job for environmental background noises.
Many thanks !
Guillaume Lemaitre