Right after the grand opening of EIAS 2023, it was time for Alice Hoffman Senior Acoustician, PhD from Brekke and Strand, to make her entrance. She took us on a journey to see how Classical Acoustics can be compared to Psychoacoustics. Her own thoughts on this are that it often seems to be a lot of misunderstandings and competitions about the right way of doing things. And during the presentation she wanted to bring both worlds closer together.
Classic Acoustics and Psychoacoustics
If we look at classic technical acoustics and psychoacoustics as two different fields. Why is that so and why don’t we use psychoacoustics more, or yet? Well, it’s a relatively young field, time-consuming, depending on the context and harder to condense into building standards.
When we compare classic acoustics with psychoacoustics, we compare different way of measurables for example amplitude and frequency in comparison with the perception of loudness and sharpness of the sound. As the human body is the instrument of measurement in psychoacoustics the answer will always differ.
Different preferences
For example, 70 dB is 70 dB but if you ask a lady who is 75 years old, she will probably experience it as a high noise level. Compared to a 15-year-old boy who might find it enjoyable. This is one of the five examples Alice presented during EIAS that you need to consider when using psychoacoustics. Another aspect to consider is JND just noticeable difference which means a minimum change in a sound that can be perceived. Knowing these limitations will help you understand if changes/improvements can be perceived or not. Last but not least we have two ears, and we detect every sound twice. Our brain can use it for direction/localisation and source separation/noise reduction. Both help you in your daily life.
To conclude there are many differences and similarities between the different approaches to looking at sound. To use both classic and psychoacoustic seems to be the future as the room always will be used by humans and we are all different from birth!
Thank you, Alice Hoffman, for an inspiring speech that opened my senses!
Ida Cederlund, Local (SE) Concept Developer Education
Watch Alice´s presentation here!
