Effects of Earphone Style and Noise Environment on Listening Levels when Using Portable Music Players in the Laboratory

Kim, Kun Woo; Jung, Jae Yun; Suh, Myung-Whan; Kim, Kun Woo; Jung, Jae Yun; Suh, Myung-Whan

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2011;16(3): 408-415.

Kun Woo Kim^` , Jae Yun Jung^` , and Myung-Whan Suh^`

김건우(Kun Woo Kim)| 정재윤(Jae Yun Jung)| 서명환(Myung-Whan Suh)

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
Recently, the widespread use of portable listening devices (PLD) has increased concern about juvenile noise-induced hearing loss. When a PLD is used in noisy environments, the user will listen to louder music than usual. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the influence of earphone style on preferred listening levels (PPLs). Furthermore, we assessed which type of earphone is least damaging to the inner ear.
Methods
There were two independent variables in this study: earphone style (ear-bud, ear-canal, and on-the-ear) and noise environment (quiet, street noise, and talking noise). Twenty-five participants listened to the same song with different earphone styles in different noise environments. The participants controlled the PLD volume switch as they wished, and the PPL was recorded with the Real Ear Measurement system.
Results
In the quiet environment, the ear-bud earphone and ear-canal earphone had similar PLL values. However, in the street noise and talking noise environments, the ear-canal earphone had the lowest PLL and the on-the-ear earphone had the highest PLL. The PLL was lowest in the quiet environment and highest in the talking noise environment. Discussion & Conclusions: The ear-canal earphone style seems to be the best earphone style for providing comfortable music listening with the lowest sound pressure level.