Abstract
A laboratory study on low frequency noise assessment has been carried out to evaluate the relevance of the weighting curve. Especially, the A-weighting curve which is used in most noise assessments has been evaluated using the acceptability limit in this study. The acceptability limit is one of the indicators in which the subjective responses were well-reflected. For the measurement of the acceptability limit, pure tone stimuli were used in the frequency range between 20 and 200 Hz. The measurement was proceeded in the anechoic chamber to minimize the background noise level. A total of 29 test subjects, who were aged between 19 to 33 years, participated in this study. They had been exposed to various stimuli for about 1 hour by supra-aural earphone. The measurement consisted of two listening sessions: hearing threshold and the acceptability limit session. The results showed that the tendency of the acceptability limit curve was approximately equal to C-weighting curve which had been found to be superior to A-weighting curve in assessment of low frequencies.