Abstract
A transmission system containing a nonlinearity produces harmonics when transmitting a pure tone. Such distortion products are often neither annoying nor audible, because they match almost totally with the fundamental. Musical tones are complex tones and consist of several harmonics. In this case, the nonlinearity changes the amplitude of these harmonics somewhat. This change is also rarely detected. Further, masking, which is stronger above the frequency of the tone, leads to the fact that strong fundamentals mask the higher harmonics produced by the nonlinear transmission system. Difference tones, produced by the nonlinearity when two tones (the primaries) are presented, are easier to detect. The difference tones are produced at frequencies below those of the primaries. The masking effect at medium and high levels is much smaller, and the difference tones are more easily detected. The frequencies of the difference tones may appear unharmonically related to the primaries and may therefore be annoying, if audible. Even when using high-quality electroacoustic equipment that does not produce audible nonlinear distortion products, we still hear difference tones that are produced by the nonlinearity of our hearing system.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Literature
Feldtkeller R.: Die Hörbarkeit nichtlinearer Verzerrungen bei der Übertragung musikalischer Zweiklänge (The audibility of nonlinear distortions for transmitting musical twocomponent sounds). Acustica, Akust. Beihefte AB 117-AB 124 (1952)
Helle R.: Amplitude und Phase des im Gehör gebildeten Differenztones dritter Ordnung (Amplitude and phase of the third order difference tone produced in the ear). Acustica 22, 74–87 (1969)
Humes L.E.: An excitationpattern algorithm for the estimation of and(12 fl)cancellation level and phase. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 78, 1252–1260 (1985)
Humes L.E.: Cancellation level and phase of the (12 fl)distortion product. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 78, 1245–1251 (1985)
Ryffert H.: Die Grenzen der Hörbarkeit nichtlinearer Verzerrungen vierter und fünfter Ordnung für die einfache Quint (The threshold for the audibility of nonlinear distortions of fourth and fifth order for the simple fifth). Frequenz 15, 254–261 (1961)
Zwicker E.: Der ungewöhnliche Amplitudengang der nichtlinearen Verzerrungen des Ohres (The strange dependence of nonlinear distortions of our hearing system on amplitude). Acustica 5, 67–74 (1955)
Zwicker E.: Der kubische Differenzton und die Erregung des Gehörs (The cubic difference tone and the excitation of our hearing system). Acustica 20, 206–209 (1968)
Zwicker E.: Different behaviour of quadratic and cubic difference tones. Hearing Res. 1, 283–292 (1979)
Zwicker E.: Zur Nichlinearität ungerader Ordnung des Gehörs (On the oddorder nonlinearity of our hearing system). Acustica 42, 149–157 (1979)
Zwicker E.: Cubic difference tone level and phase dependence on frequency difference and level of primaries. In Psychophysical, Physiological and Behavioural Studies in Hearing, ed. by G. van den Brink, F.A. Bilsen ( Univ. Press, Delft 1980 ) pp. 268–273
Zwicker E.: Nonmonotic behaviour of (2fl 12) explained by a saturation feedback model. Hearing Res. 2, 513–518 (1980)
Zwicker E.: Dependence of level and phase of the (21112)cancellation tone on frequency range, frequency difference, level of primaries, and subject. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 70, 1277–1288 (1981)
Zwicker E.: Formulae for calculating the psychoacoustical excitation level of aural difference tones measured by the cancellation method. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 69, 1410–1413 (1981)
Zwicker E.: Level and phase of the (2f112)cancellation tone expressed in vector diagrams. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 74, 63–66 (1983)
Zwicker E., H. Fastl: Cubic difference sounds measured by thresholdand compensation method. Acustica 29, 336–343 (1973)
Zwicker E., O.Martner: On the dependence of (12 fi) difference tones on subject and on additional masker. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 88, 1351–1358 (1990)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Zwicker, E., Fastl, H. (1999). The Ear’s Own Nonlinear Distortion. In: Psychoacoustics. Springer Series in Information Sciences, vol 22. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-09562-1_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-09562-1_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65063-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-09562-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive