IEC 60645-1:2017 specifies general requirements for audiometers designed for use in determining hearing threshold levels, relative to standard reference threshold levels established by means of psychoacoustic test methods, and those designed to perform psychoacoustic tests using speech material.
The object of this standard is to ensure:
a) that tests of hearing in the frequency range 125 Hz to 16 kHz on a given human ear, performed with different pure-tone audiometers which comply with this standard, give substantially the same results;
b) that the results obtained represent a valid comparison between the hearing of the ear tested and the reference threshold of hearing;
c) that a means of presenting speech material to a subject in a standardized manner is provided. This will ensure that tests of hearing using a specific speech signal and a specific manner of signal presentation, when performed with different audiometers which comply with this standard, give substantially the same results;
d) that audiometers are classified according to the range of test signals they present, according to the mode of operation or according to their presumed primary application.
This fourth edition cancels and replaces the third edition, published in 2012, and the first edition IEC 60645-2, published in 1993. This edition constitutes a technical revision.
This edition now includes the requirements for both pure-tone (prior edition of IEC 60645-1) and speech audiometers (prior edition of IEC 60645-2) into a single document. The technical requirements in this edition remain similar to the intent of the prior two documents, but now eliminate technical and editorial contradictions caused by two separate standards with different review cycles applying to an audiometer.