Granted there are major differences in music reproduction/perception between speakers and 'phones but I fail to see the relevance when it comes to a pure tone (sine wave) as long as it reaches the ear at a high enough level to be perceived.
On a different tack: We all know that bats use ultrasound to "see" and that we cannot hear this.
It was recently discovered that elephants use infrasound (ie below 20Hz) to communicate we just never knew because we don't hear it! Apparently you can stand in the open savannah halfway between two elephants, which can be miles apart, and they are "chatting" to each other whilst you hear nothing!
I think we can feel very low frequencies if we are in an enclosed space but we can't actually hear them and in open space where nothing resonates in sympathy we don't feel them either.
On a different tack: We all know that bats use ultrasound to "see" and that we cannot hear this.
It was recently discovered that elephants use infrasound (ie below 20Hz) to communicate we just never knew because we don't hear it! Apparently you can stand in the open savannah halfway between two elephants, which can be miles apart, and they are "chatting" to each other whilst you hear nothing!
I think we can feel very low frequencies if we are in an enclosed space but we can't actually hear them and in open space where nothing resonates in sympathy we don't feel them either.