Effects of Probe Insertion Depth on Real Ear Measurements

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide an overall summary of the role probe insertion depth has on real ear measurements, and to compare the real ear sound pressure level measured by a probe microphone system, using three methods for positioning the probe in an ear canal. The probe insertion techniques that were compared included: (1) an acoustic method that incorporates use of the quarter-wave antiresonance property of the ear to determine acoustically the location of the probe tube relative to the eardrum in an individual ear; (2) a constant insertion depth method (25 mm from the intratragal notch); and (3) the earmold + 5 mm method, which places the probe 5 mm beyond the tip of the individual's earmold in the canal, thereby avoiding problems associated with the transition region, where sound exits from the bore of the earmold into the larger ear canal. Measurements were obtained for each method at 32 frequencies in the unoccluded ears of 17 subjects. Results indicated that the sound pressure levels measured by the acoustic method were significantly larger than those measured by the other two methods. This result was most evident in subjects with long ear canals (> 25 mm) and at high test frequencies (4.0 to 6.3 kHz). For subjects with short or average length ear canals, the three methods provided essentially equivalent results.