title: Interaural attenuation for Sennheiser HDA 200 circumaural earphones.
abstract: Interaural attenuation (IA) was evaluated for pure tones (frequency range 125 to 16000 Hz) using Sennheiser HDA 200 circumaural earphones and Telephonics TDH-39P earphones in nine unilaterally deaf subjects. Audiometry was conducted in 1-dB steps using the manual ascending technique in accordance with ISO 8253-1. For all subjects and for all tested frequencies, the lowest IA value for HDA 200 was 42 dB. The present IA values for TDH-39P earphones closely resemble previously reported data. The findings show that the HDA 200 earphones provide more IA than the TDH-39P, especially at lower frequencies (<or=500 Hz). It is concluded that contralateral masking should be applied during pure-tone audiometry with the HDA 200 earphones when the level at the test ear is more than 40 dB above the threshold of the non-test ear.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. jonas.brannstrom@med.lu.se
authors.forename: K Jonas
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Brännström
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lantz
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone / Q000379:methods*; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006310:Hearing Aids; D046088:Hearing Loss, Unilateral / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D013018:Sound Spectrography