  Face masks muffle speech and make communication more difficult, especially
for people with hearing loss. This study examines the acoustic attenuation
caused by different face masks, including medical, cloth, and transparent
masks, using a head-shaped loudspeaker and a live human talker. The results
suggest that all masks attenuate frequencies above 1 kHz, that attenuation is
greatest in front of the talker, and that there is substantial variation
between mask types, especially cloth masks with different materials and weaves.
Transparent masks have poor acoustic performance compared to both medical and
cloth masks. Most masks have little effect on lapel microphones, suggesting
that existing sound reinforcement and assistive listening systems may be
effective for verbal communication with masks.
