Psychoacoustical characteristics of air-conditioning sounds

초록

The operating sounds of 4-way cassette type (ceiling-mounted) air-conditioners from five major manufacturers were recorded in actual environments in order to investigate the allowable sound pressure levels and sound quality characteristics of the air-conditioning sounds. The sounds with 28-55 dBA in sound pressure levels were randomly presented to subjects using headphone system. Two categorized (noisiness and amenity) nine-point scale was used as evaluation method. The results indicate that the allowable sound pressure level of the air-conditioning sound is around 35 dBA for both noisiness and amenity categories. The sound quality metrics from Zwicker's parameters as well as spectral and temporal characteristics of the air-conditioning sounds are withdrawn from the auditory experiments conducted by paired comparison and semantic differential methods. The results of the present study can give substantial ideas for effective sound quality enhancement of air-conditioning sounds.

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