A cheap earphone for small animals with good frequency response in the ultrasonic frequency range.
A new type of earphone for binaural stimulation in small animals is described. The characteristic features are: (1) small, 8 mm diameter, can be miniaturised further; (2) cheap, uses no expensive condenser microphone capsule, material costs less than 20 dollars; (3) frequency response flat within 6 dB between 10 kHz and 120 kHz, within 10 dB up to 200 kHz; (4) harmonic distortions at levels of the fundamental frequency below 75 dB SPL is below - 34 dB at worst case (10 kHz); and (5) due to the low price the most stable earphones optimally paired for dichotic stimulation can be selected by screening a number of individual specimen.
Schuller
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Zoologisches Institut der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany. schuller@zi.biologie.uni-muenchen.de
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001299:Audiometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D002685:Chiroptera; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D014465:Ultrasonics