Impact sound around the world - An online listening survey about the perceived annoyance due to impact sounds

Abstract

To support a potential introduction of an impact sound requirement into the National Building Code of Canada, the National Research Council of Canada has initiated several research projects. One of these projects consisted of several laboratory listening experiments regarding the perceived annoyance due to impact sounds. As an alternative to the typical laboratory-based listening experiments, an online-based listening survey was published for world-wide access, from November 2022 to March 2023, enabling data collection across a diverse target audience in many parts of the world. The ability to collect data with an online survey allows to reach the general public much more than with any laboratory-based experiment, and it is especially relevant in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has forced researchers to re-evaluate in-person procedures. In this paper, the online listening survey is presented and the results are discussed in relationship to the results of the laboratory tests that were carried out in Canada, Korea and Germany. Additional data that is collected in the online survey, such as the country of residence and type of housing, is used to explore the moderating effects on the annoyance ratings.