Do people perceive sound differently in other countries?

I am getting close to publishing my memoir! It's called 99% True and it is chock full of adventures, debauchery, struggles, heartwarming stories, triumphs and failures, great belly laughs, and a peek inside the high-end audio industry you've never known before.

[MrLohatoolvebyte]

On a related note; I'm in the fire alarm business by trade, I work for a major university and my role is as an Authority Having Jurisdiction.  When we engineer life safety systems and we employ data from a line of study called psycho-acoustics.  We have learned there are differences in sound perception between the sexes and are often pivotal in determining how people will respond to various alarm notification sounds and circumstances in which they hear them.  Curiously, women prove to be more resistant than men to evacuating, so modern notification equipment is often much more shrill/screechy to mimic the audio spectra of a screaming baby to get them to leave more readily. This resistance seems to be attributable most often to psychological effects we most often refer to as the "Process Bias" (won't budge from a chair: let me just finish this), and the "Normalcy Bias" (walks onto a burning building: I forgot my coffee).  I have had people try to debunk this as sexist BS. But the test data is irrefutable, men and women are wired very differently when it comes to how we perceive sounds. Therefore I think it would be fascinating to see how that comes into play when applied to enjoying high end audio. I have often wondered about that.  Could that be the reason I've never heard of a female studio mixing engineer?  Probably not.  Just thinking out loud on that one...

[homeboi]

Look up Sean Olive’s Research, semi-recent one show different countries preferred different amounts of bass/treble (though age/experience was not identical for each country).

Drywall vs brick/concrete alters the speaker response, which is why KEF’s higher end speakers offer two different ports you can use depending on what the room is made of.

[adotopp]

Thanks for this video. Sometimes the goal isn't to reproduce a live concert at home as a live concert often sounds exciting and loud but not always clear . It is nice to hear music in a quiet home as it has been recorded in a studio to get the recorded version. thanks

[johnsweda]

Why it's different is down to the structure of the building in the UK is Brick or still in America and other parts of the world is wood frame building, it flexes differently a solid brick room will sound too boomy so you have to calm the bass down. Plus if it's open plan or not will have a bearing

[ThinkingBetter]

Sound perception is like food. We learn to like certain things.

[scotts]

That was a great job of explaining and I thank you Paul. I try to set up every listening situation that I can control with at least a sub and a couple of satellites at work in a machine shop to our bands full PA system. It’s a great hobby (maybe lifestyle). Live sound situations that I have heard over the years have guided me in the choices I have made in setting up my own listening set ups. There are always trade offs in every situation.

[L.Scott_Music]

I very much agree about audio being learned.  I offer this additional example.  It used to be that every recording engineer/mixer started out as an intern, getting coffee and lunch, running cables, setting up mics, whatever; spending years in the studio.  All this time they are listening to music being created, mixed, and finished on the highest end audio systems in the world is excellent room.  By the time they were working their own projects these people KNEW what high end audio sounded like in very fine detail.  This is a benefit lost to the current generation, post record business collapse, post democratization of record production kids where the "high end" systems of the middle class studio are mediocre at best.  That said, despite this, a lot of talent (perhaps more than before due to the numbers) manages to force it's way into the light.

[gstanley]

Interesting question and discussion. Going a step or two further, consider this, a great violin sounds the same the matter where it’s played in the world and is appreciated in Europe, Japan, and the United States. However symphonic compositions very into tonality quite a bit depending on the origin of the composer. Also consider this pipe organs which are permanently attached and are part of the building and geography have significantly different sounds as you move from country to country, specifically French organs being of a brighter tone, German organs having a more even tone, and American organs been a little more showy but again that’s my opinion, and I believe the organs are designed to play the music popular in the region.

[petersagi]

Hey Paul! Im so glad you mentioned Budapest, haha! Definitely drop a vlog or two if You are visiting it in the future! :)

[soring]

This is my view after living in a few different countries: US, UK, Japan, France and to a lesser extent Germany were the pioneers in audio. Therefore when it all started in the 50s and 60s as the technology was in it's infancy each major player had a school of thought limited by the available technology. Some produced copious amounts of bass, others were very detailed, some imaged better, etc. This in turn developed the culture, the preference of that country for a certain sound signature. Small children growing up listening to their dad's stereo. Another issue is building regulations / preferences dictate how the speaker interacts with the room. A US speaker is built for a massive wood room where bass has enough space to propagate, UK caters for small carpeted rooms where it is very difficult to get deep bass, Italy has tiled floors which will create lots of reflections and boomyness, etc

[wildcat]

I think Brits love bass too but we would rather sacrifice quantity for quality. However, who doesn't love a lot of high quality bass !

[Gary-Goodridge]

In UK we are packed into small rooms and the neighbors are normally attached. We mostly live in terrace or Simi detached houses. I would love to put my system through its paces but as soon as I get it a bit loud the banging on the wall starts. This added input is not the sort of thing that makes for enjoyable listening.

[wilcalint]

The BBC designed LS3/5A ( early 70's ) was tagged as the "British" sound and for years it was used in studios around the world as a standard.

[keithwindow]

Remember when Pioneer brought out the A200 and A400 "tuned to the UK ear".

[mrpositronia]

Yeah, lets have a fight between Marantz vs Cambridge Audio! JBL vs Harbeth! PS Audio vs Naim!

[pablov]

In the UK they love bass, but a different kind of bass, not kicking, not with extremely low frecuency predominance, but a more warm bass, more round sound, if you have classical music LPs from the 60s by EMI you would understand what I mean.

[Sih]

I’m very familiar with live music being a live sound technician and all. I’ve tried/owned all manner of different kit, an awful lot of it beings British kit, I’ve always seemed to end up back with Linn. I’m yet to actually try PS Audio because dealers are few and far between here, it’s definitely a brand I’m interested in. I run two systems in different rooms so it would be nice to have two that offer something different but with equal appeal. At the moment, my second system is just to use when I’m in the other room for whatever reason but it doesn’t really get close to my main setup.

[NickP]

This may be a bit off track, and I apologize beforehand, but I have had the privelidge of visiting Japan 3 times in the past 10 years or so. Now I didn’t seek them out, but I noticed that most of the people in Japan that I met through friends over there and went to their homes had unusually nice HiFi systems. Most had nicer Technics decks (MIJ, of course) plus pretty decent systems to play their source, regardless of it being analog or digital.
Hmm....

[nathanevans]

I think that difference is probably down to the size of the listening room. Americans, on average, have larger listening rooms than Europeans. The room is a major component in any system. A large room will allow for a system with deeper bass. The same system could overload a smaller room.

[Mikexception]

Great lecture. I think You've touched the very wide problem why some care of music and others may live without (even they do not admit :)). To understand is at first to learn. Usually it takes time. Nobody can be lover of mathematics if not learned basic at school. The same with all. But regarding the type of sounding I would count it to learning the meaning of "live" - for some it would be caffe club with jazz, for others hall with gig. while others recall dry nature environment. The same church organs may sound in many ways depending on distance from pipes. That is all "live". Mixup is when recording done in one mood by performers, engineers is by listener forced (by setting gear ) to sound in his desired.