Measuring Hearing Protection Devices to ANSI S3.19-1974 Standard
This sequence is used to measure the NRR, or Noise Reduction Rating, of a hearing protection device to the ANSI S3.19-1974 standard. NRR is a numerical representation of the sound attenuation of a device. The sequence first measures the response spectrum of the unoccluded hearing protector test fixture, then makes a second measurement with the hearing protection DUT affixed. A signal generator virtual instrument generates the pink noise stimulus while an RTA virtual instrument simultaneously records the A and C weighted noise spectrums. The unoccluded and occluded measurements are analyzed with a series of post-processing steps according to the ANSI S3.19-1974 standard. The final display shows the NRR numerical value, RTA spectra of the left and right side of the unoccluded and occluded hearing test fixture, average attenuation level of the DUT, and the standard deviation of the DUT on the test fixture.
