Brian Gaff wrote:

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I've often wondered this. If somebody speaks into your ear, you do not hear
the pop you often get on a microphone in the same position do you.


** Likewise when outside in a wind, microphones produce a roaring noise that ears do not normally hear. However, if you blow air directly into your ear via a flexible tube they certainly do.

Wind impinging on a flexible surface causes it to vibrate at a low frequency, so all mics are subject to "wind noise". Cardioid types produce more since they have the proximity effect boosting low frequency output.


Likewise
when listening to music in a hall with your ears and then over headphones
from a set of mikes you notice the echo on the latter but not on your ears.
People say its the way the brain processes the sound,


** Yes, ears "listen through" room reverberation and the longer you remain in the same reverberant space the better they get at it - so it is very much a brain thing.

Microphones have no such ability so when you monitor a mic with headphones you hear the true ratio of direct to reverberant sound.


...... Phil