Coupling of earphones to human ear and to coupler

Abstract

The use of a standardized acoustical coupler should enable a calibration of audiometric earphones which ensures that the thresholds determined in the audiometry will be independent of the earphone type. This requires that the coupler approximates the average human ear closely. Nevertheless, the differences among earphones as well as between human ears and the coupler affect the results of audiometric measurements inducing uncertainty. The influence of these differences is examined by investigating the coupling of different earphones to human ears and to the standardized coupler. This is done by measurement of the transfer functions from input voltage of the earphone terminals to the entrance of the ear canal in two situations: (1) open, and (2) blocked. Similar measurements were carried out with the coupler, but since the ‘‘ear-canal entrance’’ is not well-defined for the coupler, the mentioned measurements were done at different depths in the coupler. The earphone’s coupling to (i) human ears and to (ii) the coupler, described in terms of the pressure division at the entrance of the ear canal, were compared. The results indicate that the coupling to the human ear and the coupling to the standardized coupler differ.