Human hearing and voice

• Range is about 20 Hz to 20 kHz, most sensitive at 2 to 4 KHz.

• Dynamic range (quietest to loudest) is about 96 dB

• Normal voice range is about 500 Hz to 2 kHz
  • Low frequencies are vowels and bass
  • High frequencies are consonants

Question: How sensitive is human hearing?

• Experiment: Put a person in a quiet room. Raise level of 1 kHz tone until just barely audible. Vary the frequency and plot