Attenuation of earplugs - Objective predictions compared to subjective REAT measurements

By using an experimental setup yielding the acoustical Two-Port properties of earplugs. the attenuation of three fundamentally different types of earplugs is predicted. The setup used is based on molds of the ear canals of a real person, and the Two-Port of each earplug is numerically coupled to an acoustical model of the ear. The predicted attenuation is compared to the subjective attenuation (REAT) measured on the same person. For one type of earplug the results are modified to compensate for the lack of resilience in the artificial ear canals. The results of repeated measurements are encouraging. Not only does the objective method yield attenuation data similar to the REAT, it also seems to reflect some of the variations given by subjective measurements