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 2 responses by onhwy61

Microphones used for audio recordings do not measure flat.  They are not designed for testing/measuring, but for recording voices and instruments.

As a practical test to your observation, try listening to generated white noise and tell me if it sounds good.  Or do you prefer pink or even red noise?
The U47 is not flat when compared to an Earthworks M30 which measures 3Hz to 30kHz plus/minus 1/3dB.  The U47 was famous with vocalist for its very flattering proximity effect bass boost.

Over the course of history acoustic instruments have been designed to sound good to "flawed" human hearing.  Until the development of electronic instruments, synthesizers, music reflected this historical development.  Despite this, if you want, you can use a smiley face EQ and think it sounds better.