SPHR 4/588 - Advanced Audiology
dB HL Tutorial

Previous
Next
Even though the threshold values were identical at the two frequencies (i.e., 35 dB SPL) the interpretation of the thresholds is very different at the two frequencies because of the differnetial sensitivity between 250 and 1000 Hz. As stated previously, before interpreting a threshold in dB SPL I must know which frequency is being tested and what the normal threshold is at that frequency. The demonstration on the following page shows how the dB HL scale alleviates this problem.