TY - JOUR AU - Sørensen, Rikke AU - Beach, Elizabeth AU - Gilliver, Megan AU - Daugaard, Carsten PY - 2017/12/20 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Preferred listening levels – a silent disco study JF - Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research JA - Proc. ISAAR VL - 6 IS - 0 SE - 2017/4. Assessment of specific auditory functions and hearing ability DO - UR - https://proceedings.isaar.eu/index.php/isaarproc/article/view/2017-31 SP - 255-262 AB - <p><em>Aim:</em> To investigate preferred listening levels (PLLs) in a dance situation and compare them to typical sound levels at dance venues (90-105 dB L<sub>Aeq</sub>). <em>Method</em>: Fifty-nine young people had their individually chosen sound levels measured at a silent disco event. In a separate experiment 25 participants set their PLLs for music delivered through headphones and loudspeakers respectively, and repeated measures were conducted to test intra-rater reliability. <em>Results: </em>The sound level at the silent disco event was limited to a maximum of 89-93 dB L<sub>Aeq</sub>. One-third of the 59 participants expressed a preference for louder sound levels while two-thirds were satisfied with this or even softer volumes. PLLs over headphones were on average 2 dB louder than in loudspeaker mode. PLLs varied 0.8-19.1 dB within each participant for the same input, but most participants (84%) showed a personal range of less than 5 dB in 75% of their measures. <em>Conclusion:</em> Many patrons’ PLLs are noticeably lower than what is typically offered at dance venues.</p> ER -