Deafness in Disguise

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Frequency gain chart for Aurolese phone
The multicolor-line indicates how much louder, or softer, sounds of different pitches would be when using this device. Green portions of the line indicate pitches that would be louder while red portions indicate pitches that would be softer. The gray line represents no change in loudness.

For the Aurolese Phone, the loudness of low-pitched sounds (frequency values of 300 to 1000 Hz) would not be changed much, whereas medium-high-pitched sounds (frequency values of 1000 to 2200 Hz, pitches that occur in many speech sounds) would be moderately louder (the highest “gain” is 10 dB at 2000 Hz). Some high-pitched sounds (2200 to 3000 Hz) would be softer. Overall, this amount of gain is similar to that achieved by cupping a hand behind one’s ear.