Effect of Different PLDs on Sound Pressure Measured at the Tympanic Membrane

Overview

Permanent hearing loss due to the unsafe use of personal listening devices (PLDs), such as earbuds and headphones, has become increasingly common. The purpose of this experiment was to discover which type of PLD produces the safest listening experience. Accordingly, sound intensity generated at the tympanic membrane of an anatomically correct ear by the three most common types of PLDs (earbuds, closed-back headphones, and open-backed headphones) was measured. It is hypothesized that open-backed headphones will exert fewer decibels on the tympanic membrane than closed back headphones or earbuds and closed back headphones will exert less pressure on the tympanic membrane than the earbuds when a normalized input is used. Each PLD was put through a series of tests, including 10-second pure tones intervals, and a real-world test of the song “Bohemian Rhapsody”. The data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The analysis displayed that the mean dB level for the earbuds was higher than both headphones. The one-way ANOVA revealed a significant difference in sound output of the different PLDs as the p-value of < 0.001 is less than the alpha value of 0.05, allowing the null hypothesis of no difference to be rejected. The Tukey test revealed that the earbuds were significantly different from both headphones. The earbuds were 11% and 13% louder at the tympanic membrane than the closed and open back headphones respectively, whereas the headphones were not different from each other. These findings suggest that both headphones provide a safer listening experience than earbuds.

Competition history

• AJAS 2020 Category not listed

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