Golden ear
Encyclopedia
A golden ear is a term in audio circles referring to a person who is thought to possess special talents in hearing
. Golden ears claim to be able to discern subtle differences in audio reproduction that most inexperienced and untrained listeners cannot, much like trained wine experts claim to discern differences among wines inexperienced tasters cannot.
The term has also been lent to titles of ear training
CDs, which contain drills which teach the audiophile
to identify different frequency
boost and cuts, differing compression
values, time delays, and reverb times. The Absolute Sound, a monthly publication of audio products and production techniques, gives out the "Golden Ear Award" for superior sounding audio equipment.
An ongoing blind loudspeaker listening program developed by Floyd E. Toole of Harman International has demonstrated that listeners can be trained to reliably discern relatively small frequency response differences among loudspeakers, whereas untrained listeners cannot. He showed that inexperienced listeners cannot reliably identify even large frequency response deviations.
Toole's research also indicates that when participants can see what they are hearing, their preferences often change profoundly. If the listener and test administrator don't know which sound source is the favored-to-win candidate, the differences often disappear (or the favorite loses).
Skilled listeners who claim to be able to hear differences among various pieces of audio gear assert that the ability to do so is no different than discerning picture quality differences among cameras, or discerning image quality differences among video display devices. However others argue that there are fundamental differences in the way audio and visual reproductions such as a photograph are compared, photographs can be compared side-by-side and simultaneously whereas audio must be compared sequentially.
Other experienced listeners point to "double blind" tests where obvious, audible differences have been purposely built into the test, yet results show most listeners cannot hear them. this would seem to demonstrate that when the person doing the listening does not have sufficient training and knowledge of what specific differences in audio response sound like they cannot actually hear them. Thus if the test were not blind they would be relying purely on their own biases and preconceptions to provide a difference between the sources.
As echoic memory
is know to fade within seconds and the minimum audible change in sound pressure level is 3db, a doubling of power, comparison by ear of subtle differences is a difficult task.
Hearing (sense)
Hearing is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations through an organ such as the ear. It is one of the traditional five senses...
. Golden ears claim to be able to discern subtle differences in audio reproduction that most inexperienced and untrained listeners cannot, much like trained wine experts claim to discern differences among wines inexperienced tasters cannot.
The term has also been lent to titles of ear training
Ear training
Ear training or aural skills is a skill by which musicians learn to identify, solely by hearing, pitches, intervals, melody, chords, rhythms, and other basic elements of music. The application of this skill is analogous to taking dictation in written/spoken language. Ear training may be...
CDs, which contain drills which teach the audiophile
Audiophile
An audiophile is a person who enjoys listening to recorded music, usually in a home. Some audiophiles are more interested in collecting and listening to music, while others are more interested in collecting and listening to audio components, whose "sound quality" they consider as important as the...
to identify different frequency
Frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...
boost and cuts, differing compression
Audio level compression
Dynamic range compression, also called DRC or simply compression reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds by narrowing or "compressing" an audio signal's dynamic range...
values, time delays, and reverb times. The Absolute Sound, a monthly publication of audio products and production techniques, gives out the "Golden Ear Award" for superior sounding audio equipment.
An ongoing blind loudspeaker listening program developed by Floyd E. Toole of Harman International has demonstrated that listeners can be trained to reliably discern relatively small frequency response differences among loudspeakers, whereas untrained listeners cannot. He showed that inexperienced listeners cannot reliably identify even large frequency response deviations.
Toole's research also indicates that when participants can see what they are hearing, their preferences often change profoundly. If the listener and test administrator don't know which sound source is the favored-to-win candidate, the differences often disappear (or the favorite loses).
Skilled listeners who claim to be able to hear differences among various pieces of audio gear assert that the ability to do so is no different than discerning picture quality differences among cameras, or discerning image quality differences among video display devices. However others argue that there are fundamental differences in the way audio and visual reproductions such as a photograph are compared, photographs can be compared side-by-side and simultaneously whereas audio must be compared sequentially.
Other experienced listeners point to "double blind" tests where obvious, audible differences have been purposely built into the test, yet results show most listeners cannot hear them. this would seem to demonstrate that when the person doing the listening does not have sufficient training and knowledge of what specific differences in audio response sound like they cannot actually hear them. Thus if the test were not blind they would be relying purely on their own biases and preconceptions to provide a difference between the sources.
As echoic memory
Echoic memory
Echoic memoryis a type of sensory memory and auditory in nature; a component of sensory memory that is specific to retaining auditory information. Unlike visual memory, in which our eyes can scan the stimuli over and over, the auditory stimuli cannot be scanned over and over. Auditory stimuli is...
is know to fade within seconds and the minimum audible change in sound pressure level is 3db, a doubling of power, comparison by ear of subtle differences is a difficult task.