equivalent rectangular bandwidth

6.31  ERB; equivalent rectangular bandwidth. The bandwidth of an ideal rectangular filter which has the same maximum height and area of the assumed critical band filter. See also 6.24.

Annotation 1         The Equivalent Rectangular Bandwidth (ERB) of the auditory filter for normally hearing listeners is specified as a function of center frequency by:

ERB_N = 24.673(0.004368f + 1)

where f is center frequency in hertz. The subscript N is used to emphasize that this is the value for normal hearing listeners. This equation applies when the level reaching the cochlea is 51 dB. For additional details, see ANSI/ASA S3.4-2007.

Annotation 2      There are approximately 40 ERBs in the audible range.