Three Test Methods on Measuring Noise Attenuation of Hearing Protection Devices

There are a number of well documented test methods to measure the noise attenuation values of hearing protection devices (HPD). In this paper, three standardized test methods—Real-ear attenuation at threshold (REAT), Microphone in real ear (MIRE), and Acoustical test fixture (ATF) were briefly introduced. The advantage and disadvantage of these three test methods on being used in hearing protector attenuation measurement were discussed in this paper. REAT method has been shown to be the most accurate method at estimate the performance of hearing protectors, and has been thoroughly standardized around the world.