Feature request for REW... The response of the human ear

[ElectroKinetic]

I am one of the few who is using REW to tune my entire system. While many think that the ideal system is one with a flat response, we all know that it in fact sounds pretty bad when listening to it. I think it'd be pretty cool be able to do a hearing test (say with a set of headphones that's been calibrated by REW) so we can tune our systems to OUR ears. For the time being, I think I'm going to get a hearing test and try to import the data into REW. Wish me luck!

[ElectroKinetic]

I do realize that REW as well as sound meters do have C weighting but from what I've been reading, there are much newer and more accurate standards out there

[robbo266317]

ElectroKinetic wrote:

I am one of the few who is using REW to tune my entire system. While many think that the ideal system is one with a flat response, we all know that it in fact sounds pretty bad when listening to it. I think it'd be pretty cool be able to do a hearing test (say with a set of headphones that's been calibrated by REW) so we can tune our systems to OUR ears. For the time being, I think I'm going to get a hearing test and try to import the data into REW. Wish me luck!

I don't know if it would help your hearing in the long term by subjecting it to *potentialy* very high spl's in the upper and lower range?
Personally, I have used used hearing protection most of my life (mowing lawns, grinding etc) and my lower limit is ~30 Hz and upper is ~13.5khz
I was born in '57 and everything still sounds OK - I guess it's a gradual loss so you don't notice it so much.
cheers,
robbo

[ElectroKinetic]

The response of the human ear is not flat. If you tune a system to a flat line then certain frequencies would sound lower than the rest. I believe that the system should be tuned to the human ear so that way the response sounds flat to us. I have yet to try it so it's still a theory (although I have read a few articles that bring it up).

[thewire]

My professor asked us why the subwoofers LFE channel went 10dB louder to which I replied "so there is room for the explosions to go louder", to which he replied in a short explanation that I was not entirely incorrect, but rather the subwoofer channel became louder because people need to hear the bass at a higher SPL.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

ElectroKinetic wrote:

I do realize that REW as well as sound meters do have C weighting but from what I've been reading, there are much newer and more accurate standards out there

Weighting has nothing to do with accuracy. It has to do with what you need a measurement or spec to include. A-weighting, for instance, ignores the low frequencies. It's useful in industrial settings where hearing loss might be an issue. There's no need to include low frequencies in their SPL readings, since they largely do not damage hearing. In addition, some manufacturers of audio equipment use A-weighting for their hum and noise (aka s/n ratio) spec because it can give them a "better" spec once the artifacts of 60-cycle hum are ignored.

ElectroKinetic wrote:

The response of the human ear is not flat. If you tune a system to a flat line then certain frequencies would sound lower than the rest. I believe that the system should be tuned to the human ear so that way the response sounds flat to us. I have yet to try it so it's still a theory (although I have read a few articles that bring it up).

It's called a house curve.

Regards,
Wayne

[Kal Rubinson]

ElectroKinetic wrote:

The response of the human ear is not flat. If you tune a system to a flat line then certain frequencies would sound lower than the rest. I believe that the system should be tuned to the human ear so that way the response sounds flat to us. I have yet to try it so it's still a theory (although I have read a few articles that bring it up).

We've done it and it does not really work. The reasons for that are (1) the system quickly sounds unreal because the rest of what you hear is not equalised to compensate for your hearing and that is what one accepts as a reference and (2) the system will sound like to anyone else.

Kal

[DrWho]

ElectroKinetic wrote:

I am one of the few who is using REW to tune my entire system. While many think that the ideal system is one with a flat response, we all know that it in fact sounds pretty bad when listening to it. I think it'd be pretty cool be able to do a hearing test (say with a set of headphones that's been calibrated by REW) so we can tune our systems to OUR ears. For the time being, I think I'm going to get a hearing test and try to import the data into REW. Wish me luck!

Here's the problem with that reasoning...

When you listen to sounds in the natural world (not recordings), you are hearing those sounds through the natural transfer function of your own ears. Any recording process on a flat response system automatically cancels the effects of your ears. Basically, your ears are used to listen to natural sounds and then those same ears are used to compare the system response against the natural response. Basically, the ear response ends up getting subtracted...just like common mode rejection.

All the peer reviewed research on human hearing perception also concludes that we want flat frequency response for our playback systems. The only time this deviates is with headphones and especially in-ear monitors...but that's because the acoustic space of the ear canal affects the acoustic loading drivers - much like how horns change the acoustic loading. In a normal living room, there's no way the shape of the ear canal or even your own body is going to affect the acoustic loading of your speaker's drivers...