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"I Trust My Ears"

Do you? Can you? Should you?

I don’t. The darn things try to trick me all the time!

Seriously, our ears are passive sensors. They forward sonic data to our brains. Ears don’t know if the data in question represents a child crying, a Chopin prelude, or a cow dropping a cowpie. That’s our brains’ job to figure out.

Similarly, our brains decide whether A sounds better than B, whether a component sounds phenomenal, etc.

So, "I trust my ears" should really be "I trust my brains".

And that has a different ring to it, doesn’t it?

 

 

devinplombier

Showing 1 response by hilde45

hilde45's avatar
hilde45
5,445 posts
 

"I trust my ears" should really be "I trust my brains".

Neither is adequate.

I trust my ability to pay attention.

I trust my ability to interpret.

I trust my ability to be patient and be rigorous in my methods.

Those are the things at stake.

It’s a lot smarter to trust your own ears than anyone else’s.

Well, not anyone. Some people are better at the required skills than I am. When I trust their ears -- and maybe suspend belief about my "certainties" my ears (and brain), I can stretch a bit and learn something.

The notion that everyone is their best source of expert knowledge is leading us into dangerous waters, let’s not extend it to audio.

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