The Characterization of Pleasant and Unpleasant Fan Sounds by Semantic Profiles and their Relationship to Patterns of the Specific Loudness

In order to enable a successful development of more pleasant fan sounds, it is desirable to understand and characterize perceptually relevant aspects of fan noise beyond current technical measures like the dB(A). The aim of this study is an exploration of the perceptual space of fan noise and a characterization of the most relevant perceptual dimensions by suitable psychoacoustic parameters. In a listening experiment, 45 participants rated 35 different fan noises with a semantic differential, which consisted of 29 adjective scales. A factorial analysis of the fan noise ratings yields six perceptual dimensions which describe how (I) pleasant, (II) humming/bass, (III) shrill, (IV) monotone, (V) reverberant and (VI) noise-like the fan sounds are. A second factor analysis discloses five groups of sounds. Based on their mean semantic profile they are characterized as (A) unpleasant, (B) humming, (C) pleasant, (D) noise-like and (E) varied. It turns out that the three major groups of sounds can already be well distinguished based on the first three perceptual dimensions. An analysis of the specific loudness according to the DIN 45631 standard reveals systematic differences in the specific loudness patterns of these three major groups of fan sounds, which cover 80% of the tested sounds.