Science of Sound Archive

The Human Ear

Posted By Andy Kos

Something often overlooked, but I believe to be an important part of designing, building and configuring loudspeakers systems is understanding some of the basics of the human ear, and the effects of sound on the human body. This article is intended as a brief introduction, and is by no means exhaustive.

The smiley face equaliser

img1

I’m sure you’ve seen this used, and possibly even done it yourself at some point in time.

Some would argue this is wrong, others that it is right.

The ‘smiley’ face curve often seen on graphic equalisers is similar to the effect achieved by the ‘loudness’ button on many hi-fi systems. It boosts the bass and treble to make it sound ‘better’ – but why do we think it sounds better?

Is it the speakers arent working properly? Maybe… we’ll discuss this later

But is something else wrong?

You might assume your ear works like a high quality studio microphone, with a flat frequency response across the audio spectrum, research has shown this is not the case. The way the ear responds to different frequencies varies considerably.

human ear

 

The graph above shows lines of perceived equal volume. First thing you will notice is that the smiley face equaliser curve is remarkably similar to the frequency response of the ear, but offset a little with the centre point around 3kHz and more emphasis on low frequencies. To some extent the smiley face can be explained as just naturally compensating for the human ear, making lower volume program material sound like we would expect it to sound at high volume.

Key Points:

Essentially deaf to bass frequencies:  This goes some way to explaining the loudness functions on hi-fi systems, at low volume, we find bass very difficult to hear, and it needs boosting significantly. As the volume increases the curve flattens, requiring less bass boost. In effect the loudness function is giving our ears the same balance as ‘loud’ music, but at low volume. Many people are unable to hear detail in bass frequencies, and some actually prefer the sound of distortion in bass frequencies, as they feel the sound is ‘warmer’

Most sensitive to mid-range frequencies peaking at around 3-4 kHz: Approximately the same frequency as a human high pitched scream or yell, which is not dissimilar to a baby’s cry. This means our ears are most efficient at detecting important sounds, research suggests this is down to years of evolution. Many alarm designers utilise these frequencies to maximise effectiveness. With out ears being so sensitive in the mid frequencies, poor quality sound, particularly distortion will be extremely noticeable, perhaps this goes some way to explaining the smiley curve; a way of masking problems in the mid-band by overpowering with bass and treble? Many people find distortion in the upper-mid frequencies painful, and this is often linked with occurrences of tinnitus.

Response varies with volume: As the volume increases, our ears hear differently. This is one of the reason many high-end large scale PA Systems utilise Dynamic EQ, where the equalisers are programmed to change as the volume increases. If you do apply equalisation to your sound system, you may need to adjust it for low/high volume.

So is the smiley curve correct? In my opinion, most of the time it isnt, particularly if you are playing back pre-recorded music the original recording will have been tweaked by the engineer to sound ‘right’. What is definitely correct is to equalise your system to make it sound right at the volume it is being used, and the room it is being used in, and the type of program material being played through it. If this happens to be a smiley curve, so be it, but as a system operator you should resist the urge to just boost bass and treble in the hope it will sound better. If you find you are doing this a lot, you might want to consider upgrading your sound system.

 

 

Be the first to comment

Totally Addicted to Bass?!?

Posted By Andy Kos

Its well known that a heavy bass line is in dance music is often very popular, and many people believe it is absolutely essential in order to create the best atmosphere for certain styles of music, but could we actually be addicted? Some people think it may be possible, and there is some research to suggest they are right.

To understand how this may be possible, we need to understand how sound affects our bodies. In modern life, one of our primary needs to hear is to communicate, often at moderate volume, but our ears can be much more useful than this, allowing us to be aware of things further away than we can see, and some of these things may help explain how our bodies react to sound.

Thousands of years before we had amplified music, bass frequencies, and how we reacted them, could have been critical to our survival. In nature, loud sounds, with an emphasis to low frequencies are often connected to danger. Just think of the sounds created by a stampeding herd of animals, an earthquake or a volcano erupting. Research suggests that years of evolution have developed the ‘fight or flight’ response in humans when presented with danger, this stimulates the production of adrenaline, enhancing the bodies ability to react to the danger.

You’ve heard of adrenaline junkies right? Well, it is possible that the brain associates high levels of bass with pleasure due to the mild adrenaline rush that bass frequencies may cause, and over time, coupled with other stimulants, could contribute to an addiction.

Another field of research suggests exposure to very high sound pressure levels (commonly found in bass frequencies) damages our ears and causes ‘pain’, however our bodies naturally react to this pain by creating numerous chemicals within the body, including adrenaline, endorphines and encephalons, collectively acting to blunt pain, but at the same time causing a pleasure enhancing morphine-like effect. This has yet to be proven, but the theories seem to hold true, and could also contribute to this concept.

One researcher has even gone as far as to suggest that extreme bass frequencies that penetrate the human body, causing you to literally ‘feel the bass’ may cause temporary damage to cellular structures within your body, cause the same pain blocking chemicals to be produced. These chemicals make you ‘feel good’ and may go some way to explaining the positive feeling experienced by high intensity bass frequencies.

So, is it possible to be totally addicted to bass?

Maybe….

 

 

Be the first to comment

You’ve most likely seen coils of copper wire in audio filters, but what do they do? and how do they work? We’ll try to give a simple explanation here.

At the most basic level, and inductor is just a coil of wire, and the design and construction of the inductor determine it’s inductance, which is usually measured in millihenries. Larger value inductors tend to be needed for low frequency filters, perhaps as big as 4 or 5 millihenries, but much lower value inductors are needed for higher frequency audio applications, typically between 0.1mh and 1.5mH for most common 2 way crossovers.

So, how do they work? It gets a bit sciencey, so we’ll try to keep it simple. When current flows through a wire, it creates a magnetic field around the wire. When the wire is wound as an inductor, the magnetic fields from various sections of the inductor will each have an effect on other parts of the inductor, creating a electro-motive force within the wire/inductor that opposes the applied voltage to the inductor. In effect creating an electric force in the wire that’s opposite to the voltage that’s being applied. At low frequencies, the opposing force is very small, and the inductor acts just like a piece of wire. The opposing force gets bigger and bigger as the frequency goes up, and this makes it more difficult for high frequency signals to pass through the inductor. This allows a single inductor to work as a low pass filter – blocking high frequencies and letting low frequencies pass through.

All you have to do is select the correct value of inductor (in mH) for the cut-off frequency you need for your filter.

Well, if only it were that simple. You then need to decide what type of inductor to use.

Ferrite Core. For low power filters, people have often used ferrite cored inductors. The magnetic permeability of the core increases the magnetic field strength of the inductor, allowing a specified inductance to be reached with much fewer turns of wire. This has the benefit of reducing the resistance of the inductor, making it less lossy, and ensuring more of the power reaches the speaker and less is lost in the inductor as heat. Ferrite cored inductors have a problem, they will saturate at high power levels, when the maximum magnetic field strength has been reached in the core, after this the field cant continue to increase, which causes the inductance to decrease. This causes increased distortion, and is undesirable in audio circuits. Most designers avoid ferrite cored inductors for higher power circuits.

Powdered Iron Core. You could think of these as a ‘premium’ ferrite core – they have similar benefits in terms of fewer turns of wire. They offer improved power levels due to higher saturation point, but this comes at increased cost. Considered a good compromise where ferrite core is too low power, but air cored is too big and expensive.

Laminated Steel Core. Another alternative to ferrite core inductors, but suffering from similar distortion issues especially at higher frequencies, which makes them more suited to low pass filters. The saturation point is lower than powdered iron core, but they benefit from the fact that large value inductors (2mH-4mH) are possible without huge amounts of wire being used, this helps keep the size and cost manageable, and avoids losses due to resistance of the wire.

2.0mH Laminated Steel Core Inductor

Shop for Laminated Steel Core inductors on www.bluearan.co.uk – the UK’s leading loudspeaker components supplier for Pro Audio

Air Core. Ask any audiophile, and just plain simple air is what’s best inside an inductor. The saturation point is typically so high you can achieve extremely high power levels without distortion from saturation. The inductor is generally unaffected by temperature changes, and the core (being air) cant rattle, vibrate or crack, and so is very stable. There is a drawback – particularly at low frequencies – in the the inductors can get quite large and expensive. The size of the inductor can mean losses in the wire, and heat build up, which are not ideal. Imagine your inductor having a resistance of 1-2 ohms when your speaker is 8 ohms – significant power loss can occur in the inductor before the power gets anywhere useful.

0.31mH Air Cored Inductor

Shop for Air Cored Inductors on www.bluearan.co.uk – the UK’s leading loudspeaker components supplier for Pro Audio

Its fairly common for manufacturers to mix different types of inductors in one filter according the required power handling, frequency, and price point. There will always be some compromises, but choosing the best in each situation gets the required result.