To investigate audibility of ultrasounds contained in a complex tone, psychoacoustic experiments were designed. Human subjects were required to discriminate stimuli with and without components above 22 kHz. All subjects distinguished between sounds with and without ultrasounds only when the stimulus was presented through a single loudspeaker. When the stimulus was divided into six bands of frequencies and presented through 6 loudspeakers in order to reduce intermodulation distortions, no subject could detect any ultrasounds. It was concluded that addition of ultrasounds might affect sound impression by means of some non-linear interaction that might occur in the loudspeakers.

Authors: Kiryu, Shogo; Ashihara, Kaoru
Affiliation: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Ibaraki, Japan
AES Convention: 110 (May 2001) Paper Number: 5401
Publication Date: May 1, 2001
Subject: Psychoacoustics, Perception, and Listening Tests

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