Human-based evaluation of sound from hard disk drives for noise control

Abstract

Most recent efforts to reduce the noise produced by hard disk drives (HDDs) have been based on measurable physical quantities such as the sound pressure level. However, given that the purpose of reducing HDD noise is to improve human comfort, it would be better to evaluate noise levels on the basis of human perceptions. To address this issue, we carried out human jury tests on eight HDDs in which people were asked to compare the noise of pairs of HDDs and determine which HDD sounded louder or more annoying. The jury test results were then compared with sound pressure level measurements of the noise produced by the idling HDDs and a discrepancy was found between the human perception of HDD noise and the physical quantities commonly employed for noise control. Psychoacoustic variables such as loudness level showed a better correlation with the jury test results.