When listening to music through headphones, the listeners may be less sensitive to environmental sounds. The sound pressure level of the fire alarm bell sound was measured in the actual internet cafe. And, the hearing thresholds of pure tones and the fire alarm bell sound were measured for the subjects with headphones. The minimum sound pressure level of the fire alarm bell sound recorded in the cafe was about 40 dB under the worst condition. When the subjects listened to pseudo-music signals through headphones, the hearing threshold of the fire alarm sound was come up to about 80 dB.
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