Modelling of Earphone Design Using Principal Component Analysis

This research investigated a mathematical model of earphone design with principal component analysis. Along with simplifying the design problem, a predictive model for the sound quality indicators, namely, total harmonic distortion, power of output, range of frequency response, signal-to-noise ratio, impedance of the speaker, and headroom, was formulated. (1) Background: Earphone design is a difficult problem requiring excessive experience and know-how in the process. Therefore, this research was developed to formulate a predictive model to facilitate the design process. (2) Methods: A simplified model for the design was developed in previous research, while the sound quality indicators were found to be connected to the eight material-specific parameters. Simultaneously, a principal component analysis (PCA) was utilized to decrease the number of input variables and create a more convenient and streamlined model. (3) Results: The principal component analysis-based approach obtained suboptimal predictive accuracy for the sound quality indicators, but a simplified formulation was obtained. (4) Conclusions: Based on the development and comparison of the modelling approach, it can be seen that principal component analysis can be utilized to simplify the mathematical model of the earphone design problem with a trade-off of accuracy.