Audiometer: Correction Factor for Atmospheric Pressure

Audiometers are electroacoustic equipment used by audiology professionals to measure the auditory acuity. The general and specific requirements that characterizes how it should be an audiometer is described in IEC 60645-1 (2012), including its calibration. However, this technical document does not allow the use of the audiometer at range of atmospheric pressure out of 98 kPa to 104 kPa. This means that approximately in cities higher than 290 meters altitude the audiology professionals may not use the audiometer. This paper presents correction factors for audiometric headphones coupled both with 6cc couplers (IEC 60318-3) as in artificial ears (IEC 60318-1). Measurements in a vacuum/pressure chamber were taken from sea level to equivalent atmospheric pressure at altitudes of 1600 meters. The different values at each altitude it enabled to determine the correction factor that lets audiology professionals can use the audiometer at different altitudes without the loss of quality of the results.