[Elecraft] K3 NR

[David Woolley (E.L)]

The main source of published research on real time noise reduction of 
audible signals seems to be the hearing aid industry.  I just came 
across this article suggesting that hearing aid noise reduction 
strategies make people think that the noise is less sever, but don't 
actually make the signal any more intelligible.

Trends in Amplification, Volume 10, No. 2, June 2006: Acceptance of 
Background Noise, Mueller et al. 
<http://tia.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/10/2/83.pdf>

Obviously being perceptually more desirable is good for marketing, which 
is largely based on feeling, rather than fact, and it may also be of 
value in that, over longer periods, reduced fatigue improves 
performance.  In the hearing aid world, it increases compliance (the 
number of people who actually wear their aids).

On the other hand, if anyone comes up with a algorithm that actually 
increases intelligibility in the "cocktail party" context, I think the 
hearing aid industry would love to know!

-- 
David Woolley
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