[RalphH]

On a non-music discussion board someone asserted that a person who is deaf
in one ear cannot expereince stereo or 5.1 or 7.1. In effect they can only
here in mono with no differentation of spatial information. This doesn't
seem right to me. What's the facts about impaired hearing and stereo and
mutli-channel reproduction.

[[email protected]]

On a non-music discussion board someone asserted that a person who is deaf
in one ear cannot expereince stereo or 5.1 or 7.1. In effect they can only
here in mono with no differentation of spatial information. This doesn't
seem right to me. What's the facts about impaired hearing and stereo and
mutli-channel reproduction.

Yes and no, the bits below from a site about Ambiophonics provides the
answer. I urge all to read the entire site for a very different
approach to multi speaker music reproduction and reproduction in
general.

http://www.ambiophonics.org/Ch_1_amb...s_2nd_edit.htm

Regarding frequency shaping of the pinna,ie. the outer ear:

"This side response is quite different from the dead ahead response and
indicates that we are very sensitive to the direction from which sounds
originate even if we listen with only one ear. For sounds directly
rearward, the pinna cause a dropoff of 23 dB between 2500 Hz and 10 kHz.
Other radically different frequency responses occur for sounds coming
from above or below. The pinnae seem to be entirely responsible for our
sense of center-front sound source height."

snip

"Although a one-eared music lover can tell the difference between a live
performance and a stereo recording (and Ambiophonics works for such an
individual) it is two-eared listeners that Ambiophonics can help the
most. Two ears can enhance the listening experience in a concert hall
(and life in general) only if there are differences between the sounds
reaching each ear, at least most of the time. The only differences the
sound at one ear compared to that of the other ear can have are
differences in intensity, arrival time, and absolute polarity. In an
acoustical concert hall or any real physical space, it is not possible
for absolute polarity to be inverted at just one ear and certainly not
at just one ear at all frequencies simultaneously. Thus we need only
consider what the difference (or lack of difference) between the ears in
sound arrival time and intensity does for listeners at a concert."

[John Stone]

On 10/19/07 5:52 PM, in article , "RalphH"
wrote:

On a non-music discussion board someone asserted that a person who is deaf
in one ear cannot expereince stereo or 5.1 or 7.1. In effect they can only
here in mono with no differentation of spatial information. This doesn't
seem right to me. What's the facts about impaired hearing and stereo and
mutli-channel reproduction.

I have a teacher who is deaf in one ear from birth. She told me that she
cannot tell where sounds are coming from at all. As a child, when her mother
would call her, she would have to wander from room to room to look for her
mother. Stereo is meaningless to her.

[Arny Krueger]

"RalphH" wrote in message
...

On a non-music discussion board someone asserted that a person who is deaf
in one ear cannot expereince stereo or 5.1 or 7.1. In effect they can only
here in mono with no differentation of spatial information. This doesn't
seem right to me. What's the facts about impaired hearing and stereo and
mutli-channel reproduction.

We discern the position of sound sources by many means. Having two
operational ears provides greater reliability and less ambiguity than having
just one, and by quite a bit.

But, there are many cases where accurate directional cues can be discerned
using just one ear. For example, reflections by nearby objects in
conjunction with foreknowledge about where those objects are, can be a
source of directional cues.

If you've got two operational ears, I strongly recommend taking whatever
steps you must to keep things that way! ;-)

[MC]

"RalphH" wrote in message
...
On a non-music discussion board someone asserted that a person who is deaf
in one ear cannot expereince stereo or 5.1 or 7.1. In effect they can only
here in mono with no differentation of spatial information. This doesn't
seem right to me. What's the facts about impaired hearing and stereo and
mutli-channel reproduction.

You can experience stereophony partly by simply turning your head and
hearing different sounds from different directions. Even for a person deaf
in one ear, stereo is likely to be different from mono (depending on how the
recording was made). But a person deaf in one ear would not be well
equipped to critique a stereo system

[jeffc]

"John Stone" wrote in message
...
On 10/19/07 5:52 PM, in article , "RalphH"
wrote:

On a non-music discussion board someone asserted that a person who is
deaf
in one ear cannot expereince stereo or 5.1 or 7.1. In effect they can
only
here in mono with no differentation of spatial information. This doesn't
seem right to me. What's the facts about impaired hearing and stereo and
mutli-channel reproduction.

I have a teacher who is deaf in one ear from birth. She told me that she
cannot tell where sounds are coming from at all. As a child, when her
mother
would call her, she would have to wander from room to room to look for her
mother. Stereo is meaningless to her.

That makes no sense at all. Anyone with hearing in one hear and with a
sound coming from one side can simply turn 180 degrees and the sound will be
perceived at a different amplitude.

[John Mayberry]

Subject's been covered already.

Surprising answer.

http://www.hei.org/about/history/historyhouse.htm