Are ears the weakest link?

Are ears or HiFi equipment the weakest links?

[LunarLightLtd]

Well said Paul! Simply put, your reality is your reality. The closer a speaker system gets to rendering reality, I don't care who you are or how bad your hearing is, it will sound great to you, because it sounds really close to how you hear the real world.

[TheDanEdwards]

No one's ears have a "flat" response. "Perfect hearing" is not flat. The physical nature of our head/ear distorts sound. And everyone is different. We all hear differently and that is why there never will be a single music playback setup that everyone will agree is the same as far as _best_, even if listening to the same recording.

[GrB-M]

That last part about the “frequency response” of our ears being irrelevant was perfectly put. And something a lot of people seem to have a problem comprehending. This video should be mandatory viewing for everyone trying to join a forum.

[ianbigsand]

I used to be able to perceive 20kHz, now I guess no more than 13kHz. I know that the extreme sparkle isn't there, but generally I don't notice as I have assumed that my ear is doing just what Paul says.
One side effect is that I have a higher noise floor which I think is my auditory gain being raised at higher frequencies.

[Dalpha]

I think the ear connected with the brain releasing dopamine when you hear a special song on a good hifi system.

[julesvreug]

When I was doing Electronic Engineering back in the day we where trained to listen to frequencies and see images / flashing lights etc to diagnose faults eg issues with HV CRT transformer whine etc changes in amplifier design etc I could hear extremely high frequencies but that was pre 20s now im lucky to hear above 16khz but im still very sensitive to audio changes maybe cause I frequently go between Streaming audio and DSD so my brain still can work out the differences I find I still really enjoy music on a good system / speakers even though my frequency range is pretty crap these days. I still can get goose bumps depending on the music. Best thing I found is go into a realy quite space and listen to music low maybe with headphones on and let your ears and brain try and adjust to the low levels and really focus on the details of the music eg a triangle ding, guitarists running their fingers up and down the strings, pianists pressing the tone pedals etc once you start noticing things you didn’t then can turn up the music gradually and see if still can hear them or maybe hear new things. I guess just like our muscles we need to exercise our ears and eyes to to keep them in top notch. The quietest spaces i have ever been in was Anechoic chamber/s I had to support for Cochlear ear testing, these tested the response of your year to tune a hearing aid these where air tight steel cubes with thick glass small window and very thick padded walls on the inside its hard to describe the feeling being in one but wasnt pleasant just dead even when talked sound muffled. And second was a quite deep cave that was so quite you could hear your heart beat and people breathing maybe a drip in the distance, then your brain has a fit as its so quite they start ringing eyes also played up as its so dark you start seeing flashes, dots etc. Just shows our brains are to use to this chaotic world and filter out alot of info. Like our gain control has been turned right down and when it goes really quite starts turning up automatically untill you get feedback and noise :)

[artyfhartie]

You would be surprised the difference you hear when you clear your ears. The old method of pinching your nostrils, close your mouth and breathe out gently. The loudspeakers system pushes lots of air in the room and causes pressure on your ear drums.Clearing your ears resets the balance

[clevebaker]

Being deaf in one ear and poor hearing in the other this is funny!! My records sound just as phenomenal as always, but less definitive sound but still enjoyable

[nathanevans]

You can get a good demonstration of just how much signal processing your brain is doing by wearing earplugs for a couple of hours. (I work in a noisy environment so I do this daily). When you first remove the earplugs you will clearly hear loads of little sounds, people in the distance, air conditioning units, distant traffic bird song etc. Within a couple of minutes they will disappear into the background. They are still there, your brain just filters them out so you can more easily focus on your immediate surroundings.

[hugobloemers]

We have an NSP, neurological signal processing. But that can even fix colored sound to an extend.

[davej]

Do this, reach behind your ears with two fingers and flex them to various angles while listening. You'll be amazed.

[budgetaudiophilelife-long]

🤗. MAKING ALOT OF SENSE…TO ME 🤗😁anyway PAUL…🙋‍♂️another point to ponder 🤔 is why do artists want to re-record their music 🎶 using the best equipment available 🤷‍♂️💚💚💚…anyway Just ENJOY THE MUSIC 🎶

[SteveWille]

Using measurements to evaluate ears (frequency hearing tests, etc) has all the same objectivist/subjectivist arguments, for and against, as does using measurements to evaluate speakers, amps, etc. The central measurement question applies equally to both ears and gear: do/can we measure things that distinguish the good from the bad.

[leaveempty]

I believe too much emphasis is placed on frequency response, when distortion and phasing are really important.

[duanewalker]

I believe that it is all inclusive. You factor-in things like sound pressure levels, second, third, fourth order delays, subsonic frequencies and so on. All of these things and more go into the total sonic experience. I'm really surprised that Paul rarely goes into psychoacoustics like his late, old friend Bob Carver also David Blackmer did. Those guys were light years ahead of their time in designing equipment that addressed those issues ....with analog equipment. Good luck!

[bobcorrin]

Ya !! afew years a go we were mixing our CD and I said (cannt you here the hum in there?) And the other guy said take the the end down. So we got someone with 🎼Younger ears to mix it !!

[michaelbarrett]

I believe that the ears are the final step in the audio system. I want the illusion of live music. In my humble opinion, we hear a live venue to be the perfect speaker. This is regardless of how good or bad our hearing is. So, the hi-fi must fool my ears into thinking it's live!! Or is it memorex? So, to generalize it is our ears that have the final word.

[ditto_]

Unless I go deaf my ears are the strongest link in a HiFi system. I do not need a piece of equipment or someone to tell me what sounds good. I use the equipment to aid me on the journey of finding what I think sounds good. Good sound is very subjective. Enjoy what you like.

[johnmarchington]

What you said is only partly true - at least, in my opinion. When I go to a concert and one of the works might contain quite a lot of triangle and I can't hear it, I get frustrated. That may not concern others but it concerns me.

[deadandburied]

Not just our ears, but our tolerances.