Impact Sound Insulation and Perceived Sound Quality

An extensive investigation into objective and perceived value of sound quality in dwellings in Norway was carried out in 2015 and 2016. Three main findings regarding impact sound are presented here. Impact sound from neighbours is perceived as disturbing as traffic noise, with approximately 20 % of the respondents stating they are extremely, very or moderately annoyed with noise from both types of sources. This is rather surprising, given the focus on traffic noise problems over the years. Another well known problem is low frequency impact sound from light wood-based floors. This is shown to be the case also for certain concrete floor constructions. When analysing the data using the single number quantities L'n,w (weighted standardized impact sound pressure level) or L'nT,w (weighted normalized impact sound pressure level), it was not possible to establish a statistically significant connection between objective and perceived impact sound quality. By including an enlarged frequency range adaption term (CI,50-2500), on the other hand, this relation proved to be significant. The analysis also showed that L'nT,w + CI,50-2500 seems to predict resident reaction better than L'n,w + CI,50-2500.