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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.



128x128clearthinker

Showing 3 responses by mahgister

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,889 posts
 
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.
Very true....

Please would you recommend for me a few of the best there is from your own experience...Titles and writers...

I made my system S.Q. improved only after figure it out for myself some basic aspect of this field....It is very complex and is like medecine an art based on pure science ....

Thanks in advance,

My deepest respects




mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,889 posts
 
For me it is VERY simple. If I don’t like what I’m hearing I change it. I don’t care what it originally sounded like. I don’t play music to please the person who produced the music, it’s quite the opposite for me.
I think the same....

Old mechanic with dirty hands are more than often right because they are accustomed to use and plays with laws more than just obey to them ...
😊😊😊😊😊

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,889 posts
 
If you want to know what a human being thinks of pressure waves (ie, what we hear) then you look at the Fletcher-Munson equal loudness contours.

Great post thanks....


It is the reason why the peculiarity of each specific pair of human ears being different, we must adapt and fine tuned the relation of our room to the speakers characteristic not in regard of the absolute meaning of the specs sheet but the way it is PERVEIVED by our OWN ears in our room...

Like any audio engineer take into account this "contour" to drive his mixing, in our own room knowing that our own ears will experiment timbre perception slightly differently because of the specific manner our own ears filter and group the sound waves amplitude , we must create a specific set of pressure zones in our room that will please our ears and will compensate for our speakers particular specs.......

We can also pay an acoustician to redesign our small room acoustically for our specific audio system... We can made it ourself at low cost...

Acoustic passive treatment and mechanical active control can play for the speakers/ ears the function of a compensating hearing aid , the room being now an activated device for a better S.Q.


In audio our untreated and uncontrolled room has more limitating effects than our own innate hearing limitations which we can compensate for....

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