Intelligibility of Peak-Clipped Speech at High Noise Levels
Irwin W. Pollack, J. M. Pickett · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1959
The effect of symmetrical speech peak clipping upon speech intelligibility in noise was examined. Over a wide range of conditions, intelligibility is independent of the level of peak clipping if the postclipping speech power is held constant. Peak clipping thus achieves protection of the ear against painfully loud speech without demanding penalty of intelligibility. Indeed, under restricted ranges of conditions, peak clipping may actually improve intelligibility with a constant speech power.