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Ears. The ultimate handicap.

I know this might sound a bit silly, but have you ever been listening to music and pushed the back of your ears forward just to see how the sound changes? The sound completely changes - i mean completely. Give it a try if you dont believe me. For me vocals highs sound thinner and more promounced. Sounds ridiculous I know. But it got me thinking, if a persons ears a stick out more, or is more cupped looking how is there experience of sound influenenced and thusly the gear they buy. That got me thinking about wouldn't it be an interesting comparison to see what rigs people have and a picture showing the form of their ear. Not sure there would be a correlation. But it would still be interesting.
last_lemming
hifitime
715 posts
 
Everyone has different shaped ears. Who would know if someone would have an ear that is shaped the way you could say theirs doesn't cause a change? Are medium sized ears more neutral? What about the internal parts of everyone's ears? I'd imagine they're all different too.

I think the important part would be that everyone needs to use live music for a reference. If their ear shape makes it sound bright/colored (that is being assumed here) ,it still would be normal for them. When they hear that same music on a system, their ear shape will still most likely be able to know if the reproduction matches that live music.

If anyone else with any ear shape/size does that same test, they're going to hear those changes too.

I think they can recognize a bright, or dark colored system, since they still will know it's different from the live source itself.

So I would say it shouldn't matter. Using the source for a reference is what is important in my opinion.
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stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
Maybe a search of antique stored for a pair of ear trumpets is in order. The ears Sam wore were cardboard enlargements which made him look somewhat Vulcan or like a desert fox [ the animal, not Erwin Rommel]. He was actually pictured going to a concert in them; he has more nerve than I do.
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