Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , bugbear
wrote:
A sine wave is a sine wave is a sine wave.


It can be detected - or not.


it may be slightly more complicated than that. :-)

The problem is that the ear is, physiologically and physically, a
non-linear system. Thus we can't be sure that linear superposition applies
to all its properties.

In this context that may mean that some frequency components may become
more or less audible as a result of other components being present (or
absent). Hence the idea that it may be possible to hear the effect of some
components when combined with others, but not when they are in isolation.

So tests using sinewaves will tell us what sinewaves we can hear. But that
may not tell us what components we can hear in more complex sounds.

AFAIK (and I would welcome source data) while the percieved amplitude
of a component may be affected by other components,

http://www.users.cloud9.net/~cgseife/oddity.html

the ability to detect a frequency (at "adequate" loudness) is pretty
much boolean.

BugBear