Opens in a new tab

AES E-Library

← Back to search

Conference Paper

The Relationship between the Acoustic Impedance of Headphones and the Occlusion Effect

Authors: Schlieper, Roman; Li, Song; Preihs, Stephan; Peissig, Jürgen

AES Conference: 2019 AES INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HEADPHONE TECHNOLOGY · Paper 36 · August 2019

Abstract

Closed-back headphones usually have a higher acoustic impedance if compared to open-back headphones. An increased acoustic impedance of headphones results in an increased sound pressure level at low frequencies while speaking. This causes an unnatural perception of the person’s own voice and is called the occlusion effect. This study investigates whether the perceived occlusion caused by wearing different headphones can be predicted from their acoustic impedance. For this purpose, a listening experiment was performed to evaluate the perceived occlusion caused by 11 different headphones. The results were compared to the occlusion index (OI), which was derived from the measured acoustic impedance of each headphone.

Details

Published in
AES Conference: 2019 AES INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HEADPHONE TECHNOLOGY
Paper number
36
Publication date
August 6, 2019
Affiliation
Institute of Communications Technology, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany (See document for exact affiliation information.)
Type
Conference Paper