Psychoacoustical and ear canal cancellation of (2f1-f2)-distortion products.

Level and phase of the (2f1-f2)-difference tone were measured as a function of primary-tone level using the psychoacoustical method of cancellation and the objective method of emission cancellation for four frequency separations of f1 = 1620 Hz and f2 in four subjects. Differences between hearing- and emission-cancellation levels ranged from 60-33 dB as delta f = f2-f1 increased from 180 to 432 Hz. For smaller separations of the primaries, phase changes for emission cancellation covered a wide range and had sharp "steps," whereas for hearing cancellation, the phase varied only slightly. With wider separations of the primaries, the phase became more varied for hearing cancellation and more homogeneous for emission cancellation. Both emission- and hearing-cancellation level functions were nonmonotonic as a function of constant SL1 and varied SL2. Remarkable phase shifts always appeared near minima in level at all separations of the primaries for emission cancellation. Four sources may be contributing to the differences in results: (a) the frequency-dependent attenuation of the middle-ear transfer function, (b) the frequency-dependent mismatch of the acoustical impedances at the eardrum, (c) the frequency dependence of the microphone's sensitivity mounted within the probe, and (d) the different reaction of active nonlinear cochlear processes on the hearing- and emission-cancellation tones.