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Whether to do anything about the limitations of our ears

In the thread 'How do you listen?' appears the following:

"We do not hear all frequencies equally well at all volume levels. Low bass and high treble in particular need to be at a fairly high level to be heard at all."

This asks a big question:

Should we listen as our ears hear, with their inability to apprehend all audio band frequencies at the same intensity? As we are of course compelled to do when listening to live music.

Or when listening to recorded music should we adjust the intensity of particular frequencies we don't hear so well?  This will of course give a different presentation from what we hear live.

Or, to put it a different way, should audio manufacturers design equipment to present the frequency range as flat as a microphone perceives it, or as our ears perceive it?

But a microphone is just another flawed ear, with its own imperfections as regards intensity across the audio frequency range (and others of course).

Or, again: a flat response can be flat only as the means of listening presents it.



clearthinker
clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker OP
1,582 posts
 
Thanks to all who have posted.

onhwy61
I was remarking the U47 (as an example) is very flat compared to speakers and phono carts.  So I don't need to know that other mikes are even flatter!!  You just help make my point.

Miller, rude as usual, and you are off-point.  I've got plenty between the ears thanks.  I was not replying to your post, I was picking up a point from it.  That's why it's in a new thread.

Tomic601
You are off-point.


Other posters demonstrate a strong preference for adjusting the the presentation to cope with human ear limitations at the ends of the audible range, they say to make the programme more to their personal liking.

This is interesting since the experience will be unlike listening to live music.  So many audiophiles don't want 'the closest approach to the original sound' after all.  Does this change everything?  This issue is the reason for my OP.
audio-union's avatar
audio-union
179 posts
 
The question you ask can be viewed from many levels. I would suggest the recording engineering level is where you should start your study to learn the answer to your question.

I have a couple of book shelves full of books on the subject of  Psychoacoustics, many of the books are rare. Half these books are above the level of an audio engineering degree from a non ABET accredited school. Psychoacoustics is the scientific study of sound perception and audiology. You can expect it to take 5 to 6 years to learn something about the subject spending 10's of thousands of dollars. Mostly what you will discover is there are more questions to be answered. Enjoy.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
The adjustments are for speaker and room interaction. You're not going to get a "live music" listening experience at home unless you have a live performance Hall. What is being reproduced is the original sound of the  recording not the event.
dynacohum
731 posts
 
As a young person with healthy, maybe above average hearing acuity I would encounter older folks with declining acuity and thought that whatever their hearing filter was, they perceived live music through it and reproduced music through it too, so why would their judgement of what speaker was better at recreating that sound differ from mine?  I neglected to consider their accumulated lifetime memory of how things sounded to them.  I also didn’t realize hearing loss can be asymmetrical and can include the presence of high levels of masking noise, not just the roll off of higher frequencies.  Unfortunately I now know these to be true! 
hilde45's avatar
hilde45
5,433 posts
 
I neglected to consider their accumulated lifetime memory of how things sounded to them.

This is a powerful realization. Yes, there are certain frequencies which are gone, even by mid forties. But listening is different than hearing because listening involves attention and interpretation. There's a reason that we attend to what older scientists, physicians, chefs, etc. say about their area of expertise — because they have developed intelligence and habits which yield good judgment.

The same applies to experienced listeners, regardless of their physical hearing loss, as long as it's not dramatic or if it bears upon the very aspect of sound which is under analysis at the moment.
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