A Field Study of Preferred Listening Levels for Music Played on Personal Stereo Players

A field study of preferred listening levels for music played on personal stereo players (PSP) was performed. Simultaneous recordings were made of PSP sound output levels and ambient noise levels in three environments in the city of Toronto, the subway (TTC), a busy street corner in Dundas Square, and a university library, Ryerson. Potential participants were approached in the same environment in which recordings were made. The initial contact was made nonverbally by gesturing for the user to remove the earphones. The majority of users followed the nonverbal request by removing one or both of the earbuds. Music levels were obtained by porting headphone-out of the PSP directly to mic-in of laptop and applying a correction factor to approximate the sound level that would be obtained with earbuds. The highest music levels were observed in the street environment.