RE: a woman's ears

[Laurie Hatch <lahatch@dnai.com>]

Kim illumined:
>Just so's you know.....As I understand the physiological issue, it's >not 
volume or high frequencies that cause the discomfort in women. >It's 
particular 
types of non-harmonic distortion in the audio system, >which will tend to 
be 
worse at higher volume. I've seen several >discussions of this in audio 
engineering journals, usually under the >context of how to get a wider 
customer 
base for audio products.

Hmmm.  This is really interesting.  What are these types of n-h distortion 
called?  (So I can find out more about this.)  Also, a question comes to 
mind 
regarding human sensitivity in detecting distortion.  Assuming we're 
talking 
about musicians or people with well-trained, discriminating hearing: is 
there 
inharmonic distortion occurring below the range of conscious perception 
that 
affects us negatively before we actually are aware of hearing it?  Might I 
start feeling uncomfortable before I am able to consciously identify this 
type 
of distortion, even if I was somehow miraculously blessed with a superbly 
sophisticated ear?  (My question comes in part from reading about phase 
distortion in amplifiers or equalizers.  My text source tells me the 
associated 
slight reduction of response is generally not noticeable.  Does it, 
however, 
have any measurable effect on the listener, even when not audibly 
perceived?)

I'm also curious about lab standards by which something as subjective as 
perception is meaningfully quantified.  Can anyone recommend a good source 
for 
info on that one?

>These inharmonic distortions add frequency components to the >sound in a 
particular way that women tend to have a negative >reaction to while men 
typically don't notice.

Sarajane's post mentioned differences in inner ear structure between 
genders. 
 Is that the mechanism in this case?

>It is very common with cheap home/audio stereos, cheap PA >systems, cheap 
music gear, etc. It also happens in more expensive >gear that isn't 
designed 
very well. As the volume is turned up on these >systems, the distortions 
start 
to happen, and women will start to find it >unpleasant for physiological 
reasons. On cleaner systems that don't >generate these distortions, the 
discomfort doesn't happen.

[snip]

On a few occasions, the systems were pretty clean, high end.  On the other 
hand, as I recall, I wasn't necessarily the only one suffering; some of 
the 
boyz were also getting blasted.  Which probably just means that those of 
us 
copping to pain weren't trying to be as macho, we hadn't already toasted 
our 
eardrums, or we simply weren't as hell-bent on vaporizing ourselves out of 
existence...

Maybe it's just a difference in individual thresholds. I've run across a 
very 
few musicians who consistently choose to play at *significantly* higher 
volumes 
than most (regardless of gender), yet have no detectable hearing loss 
after 
years and years of totally cranking their systems, and practically 
stuffing 10 
inch speakers in their ears.  (They also manage to drive everybody else on 
stage totally nuts!) -- And hey, talk about incompatibilities in a 
relationship...  ;-)

Anyway, thanks for the clarification, Kim.  Very useful info.

laurie



>From lists@slip.net Mon Mar 09 12:30:47 1998