AES Europe 2026

Accurate; efficient measurement of sound pressure levels
around the ears of occupants in cars is essential for
objective evaluation of basic sound quality; automotive
audio features such as personal sound zones; active
noise control. In this paper, the uncertainties of sound
pressure measurements obtained with 5 commonly used methods
are compared, which are the AES 6-microphone method, the
single-microphone method, the two-microphone method with
occupants presented, the head-and-torso simulator method,
; the human binaural method. Measurements were conducted
in the front-right seat of a 4-door electric Sedan, using
either all car body loudspeakers or a pair of headrest
loudspeakers driven by a two-channel uncorrelated pink
noise to generate an average sound pressure level of 70 dBA
in the seat. Each method underwent 3 complete
install–measure–remove cycles, a total of 54 recordings
were collected,; the standard deviation of the measured
average sound pressure levels was adopted to quantify
measurement uncertainty. The test results show that all the
5 methods have good repeatability; low uncertainty below
200 Hz; above 15 kHz, but have large uncertainty between
200 Hz; 15 kHz. The AES 6-microphone method demonstrates
the best repeatability with the lowest uncertainty across
most frequency resolutions,; its maximum uncertainty in
1/3 octave bands is less than 2.0 dB for sound pressure
measurements in the car. Therefore, the AES 6-microphone
method is recommended for use in engineering comparison;
reporting.