Users of earphones, hearing aids or other ear-worn devices frequently experience an unnatural or "boomy" sound of their own voice. This is caused by the occlusion effect, i.e., an amplification of body-conducted components at low frequencies and an attenuation of airconducted high-frequency components of the voice. Although the classic method to reduce the occlusion effect is to partly open the ear canal, active control of the ear canal sound pressure to improve own-voice perception, referred to as Occlusion Effect Cancellation (OEC), is now provided in the transparency mode of many commercial active noise control earphones. In this work, the OEC functionality of four earphones has been evaluated by subjective ratings, probe tube measurements, and measurements in a prototype coupler that features a simulation of body- and air-conducted own-voice components. Results show substantial benefits of OEC that differ between devices and that the various effects of ear canal occlusion across the whole frequency range have to be compensated for satisfactory own-voice quality. Measurements in the prototype coupler approximate the occlusion effects in real ears and may be a useful complement to tedious and potentially unreliable real-ear measurements in human subjects.
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