Speaker
Description
There is an increasing number of sound sources in our environment emitting sounds containing tonal components. Their perception is commonly assessed bymeasuring the magnitude of tonal content, also known as the tonality of the sound. While several studies investigated the impact of the level of tonal content relative to the level of the noise background, little is known about the effect of the overall level on the magnitude of tonal content. This study presents data collected in three German laboratories (Berlin, Magdeburg,Dessau) on the effect of a change in overall level of the sound (keeping the tone-to-noise ratio constant) on the magnitude of tonal content. Technical andartificial sounds were used. The latter sounds were partly basic stimuli (pure tone in noise) and partly stimuli, which were motivated by real sounds of electric vehicles. In total, 77 listeners participated in the experiment; none of them reported hearing impairment. For most stimuli, the measured magnitude oftonal content increases with level. This is in contrast to tonal methodologies such as tone-to-noise ratio and prominence ratio that were defined in national (DIN 45681) and international standards (ISO/TS 20065).