Problematiche per l'ascolto della musica in soggetti portatori di apparecchi acustici

The need to increase the volume when listening to music in cars or through low-cost audio players has arisen in the mid-80s for several reasons: one is to overcome the ambient noise and the other, not secondary, is to enhance the sound of private radio stations with respect to competitors. The method used consists in greatly reducing the dynamic range of the signal amplitude, by overcompressing it. This process has been gradually applied also in the production of audio CDs for many kinds of light music, except classical and jazz, of course. Listening to this music by using HiFi audio systems or low-quality devices makes the sound to be perceived as flat, hard and annoying. This work proposes some solutions, found with also the contribution of the Signals & Images Lab of ISTI-CNR, for the enhancement of the dynamic transients of overcompressed music, by means of HW devices and/or SW plug-in to be included in the audio chain. In particular, it is addressed the problem of the estimation of the dynamic content of a music track, for which some indices of loudness, such as those defined by the EBU standards, are proposed. The hypothesis of a possible hearing damage in prolonged listening to overcompressed songs and how this can be highlighted are also taken into consideration.