Erik, all true except you are more sensitive to phase than you think you are and if you are ever up in New England I can demonstrate that to you.
Now about Fletcher- Munson. What you are thinking about is the performance of the microphone, the inner ear which changes with age and is easily damaged. Much of F-M has to do with the diameter and length of the ear canal and the shape of the auricle. There is some variability here also but the point is that our sensitivity to bass and treble increases with volume. So, what sounds right to me at say 85 db sounds right to you at 82 dB. Before I had dynamic loudness control for serious listening I would adjust the volume to that which sounded right for that recording. With dynamic loudness compensation any recording can sound right at any level and this effect occurs across all the serious listeners who have listened to the system. None of them said "you need less bass" or "more treble" But my system is so atypical that most listeners are thunder struck. Very few people have heard full range line source ESLs with 8000 watts of subwoofers staring them down. It is a different experience from the more common point source system.
Because the ESLs are "one way" and the subwoofers are time and phase aligned to them the entire system is phase correct to within a few degrees. If I intentionally delay the subs just 0.5 msec (5 feet at sea level) You will hear and feel it easily when I switch back and forth. This puts 100 Hz 180 degrees out of phase right at the crossover point. Instant mess.
Lastly, everything is relative to the human brain. Freshly squeezed orange juice is one of the finest flavors nature ever created. It is quite sweet. Have a bite of pancake drenched in maple syrup. Go back to the orange juice and it will be sour and tart. Orange juice goes much better with eggs Benedict. It will stay sweet. If you are use to a system that is too bright a system tuned correctly will sound dull. Next we all have a remarkable trait called accommodation. If you walk into a room with a foul odor and stay there long enough the odor will seem to diminish in intensity, not so bad. Then another person walks in and says "shit! how can you stay in here? It stinks. If you walk into a very bright room you squint for a minute or two until your pupils clamp down. Much better. When you walk into a loud concert your head starts to ring but after a few minutes, not so bad. Your stapedius muscles have clamped down stiffening your ossicles decreasing your ear's sensitivity. All examples of accommodation. If I adjust a system to + or - 10 dB here and there it will sound pretty bad but the longer you listen to it you accommodate and eventually not only does it sound ok but systems that are right on sound awful. In short, a person's opinion on what something sounds like depends entirely on what they have been listening too which unless they have measured their system is entirely unknown. Most people have no idea on what their system is doing. If their system was impulse tested and they were shown the graphic they would probably puke.
Basically, 99% of us are FOS:)
Now about Fletcher- Munson. What you are thinking about is the performance of the microphone, the inner ear which changes with age and is easily damaged. Much of F-M has to do with the diameter and length of the ear canal and the shape of the auricle. There is some variability here also but the point is that our sensitivity to bass and treble increases with volume. So, what sounds right to me at say 85 db sounds right to you at 82 dB. Before I had dynamic loudness control for serious listening I would adjust the volume to that which sounded right for that recording. With dynamic loudness compensation any recording can sound right at any level and this effect occurs across all the serious listeners who have listened to the system. None of them said "you need less bass" or "more treble" But my system is so atypical that most listeners are thunder struck. Very few people have heard full range line source ESLs with 8000 watts of subwoofers staring them down. It is a different experience from the more common point source system.
Because the ESLs are "one way" and the subwoofers are time and phase aligned to them the entire system is phase correct to within a few degrees. If I intentionally delay the subs just 0.5 msec (5 feet at sea level) You will hear and feel it easily when I switch back and forth. This puts 100 Hz 180 degrees out of phase right at the crossover point. Instant mess.
Lastly, everything is relative to the human brain. Freshly squeezed orange juice is one of the finest flavors nature ever created. It is quite sweet. Have a bite of pancake drenched in maple syrup. Go back to the orange juice and it will be sour and tart. Orange juice goes much better with eggs Benedict. It will stay sweet. If you are use to a system that is too bright a system tuned correctly will sound dull. Next we all have a remarkable trait called accommodation. If you walk into a room with a foul odor and stay there long enough the odor will seem to diminish in intensity, not so bad. Then another person walks in and says "shit! how can you stay in here? It stinks. If you walk into a very bright room you squint for a minute or two until your pupils clamp down. Much better. When you walk into a loud concert your head starts to ring but after a few minutes, not so bad. Your stapedius muscles have clamped down stiffening your ossicles decreasing your ear's sensitivity. All examples of accommodation. If I adjust a system to + or - 10 dB here and there it will sound pretty bad but the longer you listen to it you accommodate and eventually not only does it sound ok but systems that are right on sound awful. In short, a person's opinion on what something sounds like depends entirely on what they have been listening too which unless they have measured their system is entirely unknown. Most people have no idea on what their system is doing. If their system was impulse tested and they were shown the graphic they would probably puke.
Basically, 99% of us are FOS:)