Measuring directional characteristics of in-ear recording devices

摘要

With the availability of small in-ear headphones and miniature microphones it is possible to construct combined in-ear devices for binaural recording and playback. When mounting a microphone on the outside of an insert earphone the microphone position deviates from ideal positions in the ear canal. The pinna and thereby also the natural sound transmission are altered by the inserted device. This paper presents a methodology for accurately measuring the directional dependent transfer functions of such in-ear devices. Pilot measurements on a commercial available device are presented and possibilities for electronic compensation of the non-ideal characteristics are considered.