VinnieVeedivicki
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Ear Pulling
CECE
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What? huh? You probably have DES. Droopy Ear syndrome. Get some good ear LIFTS (tm) I think Shunyatayatababbada Booie has some aduio grade stuff. Ear Lifts. Available in either sagging, sagging +, droopy, droopy extreme, and the ultimate version droopy max. They have done years of "research" at the droopy institue of things gone saggy and pioneered this audio grade lift system.

rvance
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Well, Rooty, if you're not pulling my leg about pulling your ears, I have noticed a marked difference in treble/mids when cupping and/or moving the ear away from my head. Something on these forums about wing-back chairs made me try it. I got TOO MUCH upper end, which made me wonder if Ron Howard (ala Alfred E. Newman) could here highs better than us "flat ears." I aslo need to "pop" my ears (similar to airplane decompression) to clear congestion sometimes. It is a temporary fix. Other times my hearing is less "noisy" and I'm okay with the artifacts of aging. I wouldn't know where to begin for surgical mitigation, however.

VinnieVeedivicki
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Thank you rvance, I had heard long ago about the "wing back chair" experiments but the cupping and attendant phase and timbrel shift were not appealing to my personal agenda. I am very sensitive to first reflection and back slap reverberation etc.

No I am talking about inventions such as what DUP is recommending. Thank you DUP. But close as that sounds to my dream "fix" it probably wouldn't do much better than the alligator clips joined by a rubber band that I experimented with as a sort of an "Ear Croakie with adjustable tension puller."

What I am asking about is a way to get larger holes in my head so that I may hear MORE of the music. My personal "reality filtering" caused by years of sagging and drooping is somehow blocking out the Satori effect of instant timbrel recognition. The "Coming Home" effect one gets from the sudden shock of hearing something "as if for the first time."

As a practical man I am simply taking note that the actual holes in my head are not being allowed to function as clearly as I would wish. I am looking for the "A veil is lifted" OR "I then saw as though not through a window---the window itself was gone and I stood and saw the THING itself directly..."

You know, a cure for THAT problem. I was hoping that perhaps drilling larger holes in my head might be the answer... Pulling ears seems to be a step in that direction. But I was hoping for something more permanent.

dbowker
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You might just need a good ear cleaning! Cosmetic surgey could be next if that doesn't work...

bertdw
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Try these: http://www.earglasses.com./

rvance
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Quote:
Try these: http://www.earglasses.com./

And they look totally bitchin'!

trevort
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Dear Sir:

I must say your post is a bit unsettling. While I have sportingly adopted a position that exhorts us audiophiles to pay attention to the complete playback chain -- especially that which follows sound reverberating around the listening room -- I have a hard time supporting making physical changes to your body in order to improve your audiophile experience.

Perhaps you have a very dry sense of humour, in which case, I'm delighted.

However, given the current popularity of other plastic surgery procedures, it is not unlikely that one would look in this direction for help.

Given that cupping your ears makes an audible improvement, it seems your ears are processing adequately. Perhaps changing your seat arrangement with respect to your stereo may be a simpler solution?

VinnieVeedivicki
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All right ttt ya got me. I WAS pulling your ear ever so slightly in hopes of eliciting at least a guffaw.

My point however is straddling the line between goofy rant and a sort of common sense observation (right where I want to be, he said dryly). That is that by merely pulling one's ears open a bit and thus opening up the canal passage wider ,in my case at least, I notice a HUGE change in upper mid and treble response.

Kinda makes me wish I COULD fool around with the "extra" reception of the high frequencies as in all truth it sounded like perhaps I WAS hearing a bit dull before I pulled my ears open.

Which means what? Well for one thing it sure means we audio buffs very likely have different ways of hearing the same speaker. And I would also imagine a hearing test using close fitting headphones and test tones is NOT going to reveal a downward slope in one's upper registers as the headphones overpower your natural ear shape.

It also explains why over the years I kept looking for a bit of boost in the higher registers...including electrostatic tweeters. Yeah I bought a very early model of Janzen add-on super tweeters in Miami back in the 60s. Now I own Townshend ribbon super tweets.

Knowledge is if not power...at least USEFUL in designing a personal playback setup. I WAS going to go my way happily avoiding any need for an equalizer as "my sound meter says my stock speaker/room setup is flat all the way to 20k." Now I am not so sure I am actually HEARING flat to 20k.

Hmmmmm. Now I guess I have to see if I can figure out just how far off my ears are from flat. And NOT wearing headphones... in my room at my listening spot.

Oh and thank you all for the fun pictures of the lady wearing her "forward looking" ear contraptions. THAT made my day!

absolutepitch
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Quote:
Well, Rooty, if you're not pulling my leg about pulling your ears, I have noticed a marked difference in treble/mids when cupping and/or moving the ear away from my head. ...

I once mentioned in another thread (forgot which one) that this effect of moving your outer ears slightly outward or inward will change the perceived sound balance, a lot. It's entirely possible that different shaped ears and how far they protrude from the head affect the perception of sound, among other physical factors. It's also not a big stretch to say that if one just got out of bed having slept on one side and compressing one ear, that the sound could be different than if that ear were allowed to relax outward for a while.

All this is speculation at this time, as I have not performed any research or read any scientific literature on this effect. Suppose that this effect is real and significant. When do audio reviewers and audiophiles listen to their systems and subsequently pass judgement, and believe they have really heard it correctly?

bertdw
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When do audio reviewers and audiophiles listen to their systems and subsequently pass judgement, and believe they have really heard it correctly?

After listening repeatedly over a long period of time to allow all the variables (temperature, humidity, mood, deformed outer ears) to even out. Quite unlike A-B double-blind testing. Oops, did I just open another can of worms?

Kal Rubinson
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All this is speculation at this time, as I have not performed any research or read any scientific literature on this effect.

It is an implicit component of the head-related transfer function (HRTF).

Kal

Jan Vigne
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The items were mentioned on this forum awhile back, and I have been unable to locate my pair after a few house moves to find the given name, but a device closely related to the ear muff type helper was a give away at a long ago C.E.S. They were made of leather so they didn't have the hard reflections of the palstic type on display in this thread. They sat over and behind the ear and extended a small bit of cupped leather beyond the ear itself. For all intents you made yourself look like Alfred E. Neuman by pushing your ear out somewhat, due to the thickness of the leather, when you clipped this in place. So your ear was cupped and then extended by this leather device. The effect was more similar to cupping your hands behind your ears than the plastic would provide. The whole device for one ear was cut from a single piece of leather and snapped together to create the "cup" portion of the device. Using the plastic pieces as a guide and some paper as a trial run you should be able to cut your own pair for a few dollars and a bit of time. Include a flap that extends over your ear from back to front rather like a backwards earpiece for a mobile phone. The increase in upper frequency response and added detail is modest but noticeable and not at all unnatural when these are in place.

An alternative would be to place an open gatefold double album cover behind your head when listening. It has closer proximity to your ears and will not be as phasey as a leather wingback chair since you can vary the degree of bounce by opening or closing the album cover. Holding this behind your head and then removing it might also show some room problems related to your listening position that could also be contributing to your loss of information. If the signal is radically different in terms of reflections or frequency response heard when you place and remove the album, you probably should do some work on the room before you blame anything else.

JasonVSerinus
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Quote:

Quote:
All this is speculation at this time, as I have not performed any research or read any scientific literature on this effect.

It is an implicit component of the head-related transfer function (HRTF).

Kal

Kal. I feel it essential that you post more information on this subject. The latest research on HRTF indicates that any prior history of alcohol or drug use can have prolonged, deleterious effects on HRTF. Thankfully, I have learned that one highly regarded audiophile company, in cooperation with Bush Administration officials, is developing a brain implant that can alleviate the problem. Sometime in April, they are expected to initiate experiments. If all goes well, I expect calls for mass implantation sometime in the fall. I trust you have even more information to share.

jason victor serinus

Kal Rubinson
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Quote:

Quote:

Quote:
All this is speculation at this time, as I have not performed any research or read any scientific literature on this effect.

It is an implicit component of the head-related transfer function (HRTF).

Kal

Kal. I feel it essential that you post more information on this subject. The latest research on HRTF indicates that any prior history of alcohol or drug use can have prolonged, deleterious effects on HRTF. Thankfully, I have learned that one highly regarded audiophile company, in cooperation with Bush Administration officials, is developing a brain implant that can alleviate the problem. Sometime in April, they are expected to initiate experiments. If all goes well, I expect calls for mass implantation sometime in the fall. I trust you have even more information to share.

jason victor serinus

I heard that the only implant they were pursuing was a brain bypass.

Kal

absolutepitch
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Agreed. In the one instance where I tried moving the ears slightly in or out, there was a fairly large change in the sound balance. I would have to hypothesize that the effect is pretty significant, for an implicit part of the HRTF. However, it's possible that the cartilage in the ear is resiliant enough to return to the shape in a precise enough manner to make this moot. Again, no data to say one way or the other.

I also agree that over time, the differences may average out. I've also read in these forums that aural memory is not very good (I'm not sure I agree with this yet). These two counter each other to some extent, if both are correct. So where is the reference point if your HRTF changes and one has to go by what one hears? Are we misled by our own ears? I don't think we will get very far discussing this in the forum without real good data.

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