Method to acquire preferred dynamic range function for speech enhancement

A method to generate a DRCF curve for a user comprising the steps of:

• emitting a test signal into an ear canal of a user wearing an earphone;
• measuring the test signal with a microphone;
• evaluating the ear seal integrity of the earphone and sending a notice to the user if a seal value fails to exceed a threshold;
• receiving an audio signal, referred to as the received audio signal;
• generating a first dynamic range compression parameter set A, where the parameter set A includes at least one of a compression ratio value, an expansion ratio value, a threshold value, and a gate value;
• generating a second dynamic range compression parameter set B, where the parameter set B includes at least one of a compression ratio value, an expansion ratio value, threshold value, and gate value;
• processing the received audio signal with a first dynamic range compressor using the parameter set A to produce an output signal A;
• processing the received audio signal with a second dynamic range compressor using the parameter set B to produce an output signal B;
• selecting a preferred parameter set by selecting between the parameter set A and parameter set B by conducting a preference test by a user, where the user determines the preferred parameter set by comparing a speech intelligibility produced by using parameter set A and a speech intelligibility produced by using parameter set B, and generating a DRCF curve using the preferred parameter set.