title: Relation between annoyance and single-number quantities for rating heavy-weight floor impact sound insulation in wooden houses.
abstract: This study investigated the relation between annoyance and single-number quantities to rate heavy-weight floor impact sound insulation. Laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the subjective response of annoyance resulting from heavy-weight floor impact sounds recorded in wooden houses. Stimuli had two typical spectra and their modified versions, which simulate the precise change in frequency response resulting from insulation treatments. Results of the first experiment showed that the Zwicker's percentile loudness (N(5)) was the quantity to rate most well annoyance of heavy-weight impact sound over a wide sound level range. The second experiment revealed that arithmetic average (L(iFavg,Fmax)) of octave-band sound pressure levels measured using the time constant "fast" and Zwicker's percentile loudness (N(5)) much better described annoyance by the precise change in the sound spectrum attributable to insulation treatments than Japanese standardized single-number quantities (L(i,Fmax,r), L(iA,Fmax), and L(i,Fmax,Aw)) do. Japanese standardized single-number quantities using the A-weighting curve as a rating curve were found to be excessively influenced by the 63 Hz octave-band sound level and have the great sound level-dependences in the relation with subjective ratings.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Chuo 6-11, AIST Tsukuba Central 6, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8566, Japan.
authors.forename: Jongkwan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ryu
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kurakata
authors.forename: Atsuo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hiramitsu
authors.forename: Manabu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Tomohito
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirota
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003252:Construction Materials; D005260:Female; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D007508:Irritable Mood; D008144:Loudness Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000517:prevention & control; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D014934:Wood; D055815:Young Adult