Masking threshold

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Masking threshold within acoustics (a branch of physics that deals with topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound, and infrasound), refers to a process where if there are two concurrent sounds and one sound is louder than the other, a person may be unable to hear the soft sound because it is masked by the louder sound.^[1]

So the masking threshold is the sound pressure level of a sound needed to make the sound audible in the presence of another noise called a "masker". This threshold depends upon the frequency, the type of masker, and the kind of sound being masked. The effect is strongest between two sounds close in frequency.

In the context of audio transmission, there are some advantages to being unable to perceive a sound. In audio encoding, for example, better compression can be achieved by omitting the inaudible tones. This requires fewer bits to encode the sound and reduces the size of the final file.