Acoustic conditions of clinic rooms for sound field audiometry

The British Society of Audiology (BSA) recommends a maximum reverberation time of 0.25 s for sound field audiometry in clinic rooms. The present study measured room impulse responses from 36 rooms where sound field audiometry is conducted in Denmark, Germany and the Republic of Korea. The volumes of the rooms measured ranged from 14 m3 to 60 m3, and the reverberation times ranged from 0.1 s to 0.65 s.

Their background noise levels varied from 20 dBA to 30 dBA. Office type rooms where other medical tasks also take place generally lack sound absorption particularly at low frequencies. Other acoustical parameters such as clarity and definition are also presented.