A new Danish speech material (DANTALE) for clinical and experimental speech audiometry is digitally recorded on compact disc (CD). The speech material is designed to meet present audiological requirements at Danish hearing centres. One channel of the CD contains the speech signals and the other a masking noise. The CD also contains various calibration signals recorded on both channels at the end of the CD. The speech material compromises: 1) Digit triplets for the measurement of speech reception threshold (SRT). 2) Lists of monosyllabic words for the measurement of discrimination score (DS) for adults, children and small children. The word lists for the adults are equalized with regard to important phonetic and "visual" elements and the word lists for the children consist of minimal pairs. 3) Continuous speech for the measurement of the most comfortable loudness level (MCL), assessment of hearing aid fitting and the like. The masking noise is an amplitude-modulated, speech-shaped noise signal, which is designed to simulate a 4-person speech babble in order to assess both the frequency selectivity and the temporal resolution. The speech material is described and the long-term power spectra and modulation spectra are given.
In essence, a hearing aid is an acoustical amplifier, and has, therefore, traditionally been described in technical terms, as defined in the appropriate standards (IEC, ANSI). The advent of prescriptive fitting methods, plus a better understanding of the in situ acoustics, has had a significant impact on hearing aid design, but also on the way in which the acoustical properties are presented. Hearing aid dispensers tend to have an audiological rather than acoustical background, and the data to be employed in individual hearing aid fitting are also audiologically based. Hence, there is a strong case for manufacturers to adopt an audiological characterization of their hearing aids, even encompassing that hearing aid adjustments be calibrated in hearing loss and UCL units. Conversions between technical and audiological data for a hearing aid will be discussed and illustrated. In part, such conversions are contingent upon hearing aid measurements performed on the KEMAR manikin, one of Hugh Knowles' many contributions in the field of hearing aids.
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