1. Introduction
When the ear canal is occluded, the sound of one’s own voice as well as body-conducted (BC) noises such as footsteps are strongly colored. This phenomenon is called the occlusion effect (OE) and is a common problem for the users of in-ear headphones and hearing aids. It is caused by two mechanisms: An amplification of BC sound in the occluded ear canal, mainly affecting low frequency components, and an attenuation of air-conducted (AC) sound by the occluding object, mainly affecting high frequency components [1], p. 26f].