If your question is how to better suppress low frequency sounds, active noise control works far better at lower frequencies while passive methods work far better at high frequencies. -- Brian FG Katz Equipe LAM : Lutheries Acoustique Musique Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Institut ∂'Alembert -------- Original message -------- From: Matt Flax <flatmax@xxxxxxxxxxx> Date: 3/22/24 05:43 (GMT+01:00) To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [AUDITORY] Ifrasubs ruin hearing protection use cases by default - and certainly most large venues do too. This it turns out is a conundrum for hearing protection. For example my "flattened" ear plugs give 13 dB or more hearing protection, but they have a lower frequency limit. This means that I am still hearing un-attenuated low frequency music. This may not seem like a problem, however it suppresses the melodic (13 dB dampened) music when strong sub bass is present - to the point where it sounds like you are listening to gated sub bass with little else on top. At this point I would like to steer this conversation away from a discussion on what "quality music is" and keep it on the track of suppression and if necessary then masking. Sometimes I feel that psychoacoustics is the statistical model (AI) of hearing. As frequency tuning curves typically have lower slope for lower frequencies, the ear's physiology suppresses higher frequency signal power. In the psychoacoustics world the frequency spreading functions of masking models generate the upwards (frequency) spread of masking (as a shameless plug, see Figure 3 here : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew-Flax/publication/3898361_Hybrid_auditory_masking_models/links/61dc0e7e4e4aff4a642f9514/Hybrid-auditory-masking-models.pdf) Is this a commonly discussed issue yet ? I can't think of practical ways to improve the sound quality of "flattened hearing protection devices" at live venues with infrasubs, is anyone aware of any ? Matt |