do you ever find headphones sound slower???????

[jack rock]

I experience this myself all the time. And I have been wondering about it.

One psycoacoustic phenomenon that COULD be significant here is the pitch vs. loudness perception.
If you try to make a sinus-tone at a perticular frequency, say 440Hz, and play it in a pair of headphones you can hear it for yourself. Start at low volume, then increase the volume untill it's moderately loud. Notice that the perceived frequency changes! Roughly put, frequencies below 1000Hz will pitch downwards and frequencies above will pitch upwards.

This is due to the physical properties of the inner ear - the Cochlea. The various frequencies are represented along the so-called Basilar Membrane. A certain point on the membrane will have a certain stiffness that coresponds to a resonancepoint for that frequency = it resonates and dies, triggering the nerve-cells at that particular location. The brain then knows what frequency those nerves represent.
When the sound pressure increases the vibrations on the Basilar Membrane become so strong that neighbouring nervecells are triggered as well, resulting in a change in pitch perception.

Lowered pitch (the effect on basstones and kickdrums) could be interpreted by the brain as if the tempo of the music was decreased, so this could be part of an explanation of this phenomenon.
This also coresponds well with scottorlans' theory of fluid time perception - the pitch then being one of several factors helping define the "pace of time" for our brains.

[forge]

Been a while since, but I've caught myself several times in mornings that music sounds faster than it does in evenings. Its crazy I know, but I've noticed it several times, so I cant dismiss it completely. Ofcourse its all in the head, but its quite funny nevertheless

ahh...yes you might be on to something there - that suggests ear fatigue - maybe there is something similar going on here - stretched ear drums? higher pressure close to the eardrum stretching the sound in the same way stretched audio tape makes it slower - maybe you tense up when you put on headphones and the drums tighten so sound is slower?

So far Robert and Scott seem to probably have the most sensible theories

[tribalogical]

Wow........... so what we're talking about here is nothing less than a "Brain Induced Time-Warping Psycho-Acoustic Doppler Effect Phenomenon"....!....?

Did I leave anything out?


I've heard that odd little time-shift myself with headphones... figured it was somehow doppler-related....

Had no idea it was actually an X-File!


peace,
tribalogical

[forge]

I experience this myself all the time. And I have been wondering about it.

One psycoacoustic phenomenon that COULD be significant here is the pitch vs. loudness perception.
If you try to make a sinus-tone at a perticular frequency, say 440Hz, and play it in a pair of headphones you can hear it for yourself. Start at low volume, then increase the volume untill it's moderately loud. Notice that the perceived frequency changes! Roughly put, frequencies below 1000Hz will pitch downwards and frequencies above will pitch upwards.

This is due to the physical properties of the inner ear - the Cochlea. The various frequencies are represented along the so-called Basilar Membrane. A certain point on the membrane will have a certain stiffness that coresponds to a resonancepoint for that frequency = it resonates and dies, triggering the nerve-cells at that particular location. The brain then knows what frequency those nerves represent.
When the sound pressure increases the vibrations on the Basilar Membrane become so strong that neighbouring nervecells are triggered as well, resulting in a change in pitch perception.

Lowered pitch (the effect on basstones and kickdrums) could be interpreted by the brain as if the tempo of the music was decreased, so this could be part of an explanation of this phenomenon.
This also coresponds well with scottorlans' theory of fluid time perception - the pitch then being one of several factors helping define the "pace of time" for our brains.

that's the kind of answer I was after! I'll settle with that one!

[telekom]

Hey folks,
To add to forge's perception of music being slower in headphones... you know sometimes when a song is fading out you get a slight change in tempo? Is that something to do with perception or is it an engineering technique or is there something wrong with my hifi?

Anybody had this happen/know what causes it? Just curious.

I love this forum.

[forge]

Hey folks,
To add to forge's perception of music being slower in headphones... you know sometimes when a song is fading out you get a slight change in tempo? Is that something to do with perception or is it an engineering technique or is there something wrong with my hifi?

Anybody had this happen/know what causes it? Just curious.

I love this forum.

yeah, that, coupled with the fact that usually when I notice it I'd be hearing my speakers at low volume so probably hearing more from the tweeters - so makes you think maybe it's more to do with High freqs - that would support Roberts Room acoustics point - but riddle me this - does the fade out still sound faster on heaadphones??

[Chris J]

If there is more space, or silence, in a sparse mix, I think the tempo seems slower than it really is.

that's the opposite

[forge]

bump

just got me again!