On 24/11/2016 07:29, Chris J Dixon wrote:
Phil Allison wrote:

Don Pearce wrote:

So I have an infection in my right ear, and am pretty much deaf on
that side right now. But I can place audio sources just as well as I
could with two functioning ears.

Locating the direction of a typical sound source involves time of arrival differences at each ear - plus moving the head to bring them towards zero.

I did a final year project during which subjects with an ear
defender over one ear were repeatedly asked to select which
speaker in a semicircular array around them was the source of a
low level click.

Despite the literature showing claims of some ability to do this,
my tests indicated otherwise. This may well have been due to a
learning process and/or the actual sound levels.

If your head is in a fixed position then it is very difficult, even with two ears, to locate sounds.

--
Eiron.

Eiron wrote:


If your head is in a fixed position then it is very difficult, even with
two ears, to locate sounds.



** To really *locate* an invisible sound source, you need to walk around and find it. But that is NOT the question.

One can usually nominate the direction of a source, which IS the topic, with the head held still long as the sound discontinuous and has high frequency components.

Stereo sound is heard perfectly by listeners with still heads, or even wearing headphones.



..... Phil

On Thu, 24 Nov 2016 03:00:52 -0800 (PST), Phil Allison
wrote:

Eiron wrote:


If your head is in a fixed position then it is very difficult, even with
two ears, to locate sounds.



** To really *locate* an invisible sound source, you need to walk around and find it. But that is NOT the question.

One can usually nominate the direction of a source, which IS the topic, with the head held still long as the sound discontinuous and has high frequency components.

Stereo sound is heard perfectly by listeners with still heads, or even wearing headphones.



.... Phil





That is the essence of it. To be easily located, the sound needs to
have a lot of different frequency content - preferably in the form of
clicks. You can locate clicks easily in a reverberant space with many
speakers. Play a low-ish frequency sine wave through those same
speakers, and it is mostly a matter of luck whether you can locate it.

d

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