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
Hello clearthinker.  Be sure you own ears are clean and there is no wax buildup in your ear canals. I have a good friend who never thaought about this and bought a kit for cleaning out ear canals at a local drug store (cheaper on Amazon, $30) and was amazed at what he could hear after getting the garbage out of his ear canals. Forgive me if this seems obvious. My pal had never considered this. Enjoy the music.
This is tough I’ll just sell my system asap.

A one-oar rowboat enters the lake.
Great question. I am hearing sibilance from all sources (home and car), but not on all recordings. It must be my ears, no? Sad.