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Re: Fw: sursound: The pinna and Ambisonics/cross post



John is completely right. Yet, in rooms one has to consider in addition
what the room does to the phase and, hence, the interaural time cues.
The reason that sub-woofer work at all has to do with the room.

Jens Blauert

                       --------------------------------------
                       Jens Blauert, Professor
                       Institute of Communication Acoustics
                       Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum
                       D-44780 Bochum, Germany

                       e-mail: blauert@ika.ruhr-uni-bochum.de
                       http://www.ika.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/

                       Phone: +49 234 322 2496
                       Fax:   +49 234 321 4165
                       --------------------------------------

>
> 1) It is not true that humans have particular difficulty with high frequency
> sounds. Humans have particular difficulty with pure tones in the 1.5-2.5 kHz
> region. Everything else can be localised quite well - at least on a left/right
> basis.
>
> 2) It is true that left/right discrimination is dominated by low frequencies.
>
> 3) All other discriminations (up/down, front/back) *require* high frequencies,
> because they are mediated by pinna cues, and the pinna has no influence over
> low frequencies. They also demand a complex sound, as it is the relative level
> of different frequencies that codes the direction.
>
> Regarding point 2, I wonder why audio engineers think that a single sub-woofer
> is a good idea these days. I find that they confuse the image compared to
> a conventional pair of stereo speakers. Multiple tweeters around the room
> seem like a good idea in view of 3) though.
>
> For literature see recent publications by Wightman and Kistler, Noble and
> colleagues, Carlile etc.
>
> John.
>
> Dr. John Culling,
> Sch. of Psychology,
> Cardiff University,
> P.O. Box 901
> Cardiff
> CF10 3YG
>
> Tel. +44 029 20874523
> FAX +44 029 20874858
> http://www.cf.ac.uk/uwcc/psych/CullingJ/
>