1. There will be a drawing for the
annual Meeting Summary Writer bonus. Candidates are:
John S. Allen Museum of Broadcasting
David Hadaway Favorite Recordings
Alvin Foster Amplifier Clinic
David Hadaway Janszen Loudspeakers
John S. Allen Griesinger on Presence
2. The Shape of Your Ears Affects
What You Hear
In Ask Marilyn in Parade Magazine
a reader asks:
Since we have two ears, I can understand
how we can tell whether sounds are coming from our left or right.
But how can we tell if theyre coming from our front or
back?
Marilyn responds: As those two ears are
on opposite sides of our heads, they provide us with a great
many clues about the location of the source. Even the tiniest
differences in volume, timing, frequency and reverberation give
us data...
Comment: If the sound is coming from the
front and back, above and below there is no timing difference
between the ears so we can't tell front from back or top from
bottom. The outer ears (the pinnae) shade the sound and give
us cues to tell front and back. Amazingly Marilyn doesn't mention
this!
Researchers have found that filling in an
external part of the ear with a small piece of silicone drastically
changes people's ability to tell whether a sound came from above
or below. But given time the brain adjusts to the new shape,
regaining the ability to pinpoint sounds with almost the same
accuracy as before.
The researchers are interested in finding
out more about how a sound's height is perceived in the brain,
especially sounds coming from behind. Such research could lead
to better hearing devices.
NYT 13Mr18, Parade 8Ap18

email me here
...webmaster's
note: Gosh, I've been doing that for years, especially
with Ozzie Osbourne records. You would never actually listen
to one of those atrocious things, would you?
Barry
|