Then why do most people agree on the Steinway sounding better? Do you have an explanation?
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Ear muscle we thought humans didn’t use actually activates when people listen hard
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I give up
An interesting aspect of our hearing system and our brains is that if you don't see the speakers, you can forget where the music is coming from after a while, except that it seems to be coming from somewhere in front. This can be tested. I have two speakers about 2.5m in front of me, separated by about 2 meters from each other. I sit behind the monitor, so I don't see those speakers, and the music plays continuously. As I continue with my work, those unseen speakers become lost; only the music remains, and there's no distinct left or right speaker, just a room full of sound that seems to come from the front and above the top of the monitor, sometimes even further away from the wall behind those speakers.
Miguelón
Major Contributor
There are different kind of muscles, the timpanic tensor is used involuntarily to increase or decrease sensitivity of the medium chamber of the ear.
In my professional field (physical rehabilitation medicine) is common to see patients suffering from tinnitus after cervical injuries, we believe that some reflexes from cervical muscles activates timpanic tensor and produce extra sensitivity and tinnitus. Other theories are developed to explain tinnitus in absence of cervical influence, and involving the muscle by stress or genetic facilitation pathways in the motor control of the tensor.
The article describes another extra-auricular muscles that potentially can move the ear but in vast majority of persons are inefficient. We have many other vestigial muscles, many of them in our foot toes
solderdude
Grand Contributor
This is from a guy that can voluntary move the typmanic tensor.
Below is what is talked about here ?
Miguelón
Major Contributor
Look at the sad life of tuna: not only they cannot hear a fraction of what cats can do, but also quite probably they will finish triturated to be their favorite meal
Andysu
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improves their hearing , poor creature tunaLook at the sad life of tuna: not only they cannot hear a fraction of what cats can do, but also quite probably they will finish triturated to be their favorite meal
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Simon Rao
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I think this makes a lot of sense. I’m a live sound engineer, and whenever I focus intently on listening to music, I always feel a specific sensation in my head—almost like certain muscles are being activated. After long hours of work, sometimes this feeling of intense concentration doesn’t go away immediately, and it can even give me a headache. I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience.
Miguelón
Major Contributor
May be the neck muscles that orient your head to the optimal position to listen, as it occurs in visual fatigue related headache (in this case extra ocular muscles are also involved).
If your listening levels are high, neck and facial muscles are also contracted in a sort of protective gesture (not really effective I suppose, but reflexes are often residual for predecessor species). Also high acoustic levels increase muscle tone, by alert mechanisms involving adrenaline liberation
I guess that's especially true for music with big bass. In nature, any sound that is deep and loud comes from something big and dangerous. Our instincts "know" that. Instinct tells us there's danger, our higher brain functions say we're safe. That creates tension and excitement, which many people happen to enjoy very much.
Miguelón
Major Contributor
Yep, I’m thinking in Tyrannosaurus steps in Jurassic Park
Miguelón
Major Contributor
In the clinic I work, our magnetic resonance is quite old and produces a lot of noise, I measured 70-75 dB all day.
When I go out I feel some bizarre tension also in head, and the first musical listenings once arrived at home sound strange (like irritant): I don’t know if can be related to your experience
Which - in fact - is exactly the same as perceptive bias.That's the whole point. Excited people physically change the way their ears receive sound, but (usually) aren't aware of it and then attribute it to some amazingly expensive speaker cables or whatever. They hear a real, physical change - but it's still themselves doing it by literally shifting their ear geometry. They say "oh it sounds more clear now" and they're right - they're just wrong about the cause.
The perceived sound change is real - the brain changes it. It is not imagination as some people call it.
It is a real change to the sound caused by the auditory system - part of which is the brain.
Robbo99999
Master Contributor
In my experience if you've got good speakers that are setup properly then it shouldn't really sound like the sound is coming from the speakers anyway. In my experience it's just a wall of sound with individual sounds that can come from anywhere inbetween the speakers and even outside of the speakers in terms of left/right direction (wider than the positioned speakers even) and as you said even depth differences. It does help if you shut your eyes or aren't paying any attention to the visual location of the speakers - like if you're watching a movie sometimes there's sounds that sound like they come from outside the plane of the speakers and you've got your eyes open for that obviously but you're paying attention to the screen and the movie, so I suppose that's similar to when you say you can't see your speakers, I can see that it helps if you can't see your speakers of if you don't pay any visual attention to them. But if speakers setup right you shouldn't really be able to identify the individual speakers sonically.