Influence of music and music preference on acceptable noise levels in listeners with normal hearing.

Acceptable noise level (ANL) is defined as the maximum level of background noise that an individual is willing to accept while listening to speech. The type of background noise does not affect ANL results with the possible exception of music. The purpose of this study was to determine if ANL for music was different from ANL for twelve-talker babble and investigate if there was a correlation between ANL for music samples and preference for those music samples. Results demonstrated that ANL for music tended to be better than ANL for twelve-talker babble, indicating listeners were more willing to accept music as a background noise than speech babble. The results further demonstrated that ANL for the music samples were not correlated with preference for the music samples, indicating that ANL for music was not related to music preference. Therefore, music appeared to be processed differently as a background noise than twelve-talker babble.