[quote=“Taiwan_Student”]About Satan, backwards headphones and satanic messages: I’ve only heard one deliberately recorded backwards message in my life so far.
It appears at the end of Darling Nicky, by Prince. If you listen to the song, it is obvious that the track is backwards. When you reverse it, it’s clear as day. But it is not Satanic. Quite the opposite, surprisingly.
Do backwards messages really exist? Any others I could listen to? PS: I’ll put my headphones on backwards to stay on topic.[/quote]
When I was a kid it was widely reported that if one played Revolution Number Nine, off the Beatles’ White Album backwards, it supposedly said “Turn me on dead man,” which was supposed to have satanic connotations.
Most sound engineers and audiophiles would disagree.
Sounds like we can recognize you and MT as the guys with them on backwards. Maybe that would be a way for Forumosans to meet on the streets and subways of Taipei. Since it doesn’t matter which channel goes into which ear, all Forumosans go out and wear your headphones backwards. Kind of like a secret handshake.
OK, Toe Tag, I started the thread because I went out for a bike ride early the other morning, put on my iPod in the dark and couldn’t tell which was L and R, and it occurred to me it probably wouldn’t make a difference anyway.
I acknowledge that big, comfy headphones may be designed physically so they fit more comfortably one way rather than the other and even iPod earphones may have a slight fit difference in that regard. I also acknowledge that when watching TV with headphones one might want to ensure that sounds travel in the correct direction. And I even acknowledge that some hard-core Classical music buffs might care whether the bassoons are on the left or the right.
But I still find it hard to believe that, if I’m listening to a little AC-DC on my morning bike ride, it makes any difference acoustically which earphone is in which ear. If you feel it does make a difference, I’d love to hear why. I mean that sincerely, not in a smart-ass sort of way.
Most sound engineers and audiophiles would disagree.
Sounds like we can recognize you and MT as the guys with them on backwards. Maybe that would be a way for Forumosans to meet on the streets and subways of Taipei. Since it doesn’t matter which channel goes into which ear, all Forumosans go out and wear your headphones backwards. Kind of like a secret handshake.[/quote]
I’d no more wear headphones on the street than fly through the air. But I DO wear them the right way around when I wear them because it’s the only way they fit.
Why does it matter whether the left channel goes into the left ear or vice versa again? You still haven’t explained that one to me. Coltrane is still Coltrane whichever ear he goes into.
The sound is engineered, particularly in live recordings which are often binaural (two mikes where your ears would be, sometimes even on a dummy head), to reproduce a three dimensional sound stage. Any audiophile with a real stereo system can affirm this and demonstrate it. You can close your eyes and listen to a jazz trio and say, the bass player is sitting there, the pianist there, the drummer over there. And its three dimensions, front to back to boot. But the effect is more than just knowing where the musicians are sitting. When you reverse the L and R, you don’t just get a mirror image.
I still kind of like the idea of Forumosans wandering around Taiwan with reverse headphones though…
But I’m not an audiophile of any description, my stereo cost under NT$30k and my 'phones were under NT$10k. So for me it doesn’t really matter a jot. Who cares where the guys are sitting anyway? I like it best when they’re jumping around, anyway.
[quote=“Toe Tag”]…And its three dimensions, front to back to boot. But the effect is more than just knowing where the musicians are sitting. When you reverse the L and R, you don’t just get a mirror image.[/quote]Right. I remember reading an article in a music technology magazine that tried to explain how this works. All to do with psychoacoustics.I don’t remember any of it though. But have you ever heard that effect on some CDs where they make the sound rotate all the way around your head? It’s uncanny.
Yeah, I remember there’s a bit on Dark Side of the Moon when there’s some kind of percussion thing going on that pans from one speaker to the other so it sounds like someone is walking across the top your head. But you can still hear it whether it’s going left to right or right to left.
[quote]To image a nearly ideal point sound source, the headphone should have
an open speaker sound radiation in the lower part of the earcup, below the ear canal
acoustic felt (middle damping) beside the speaker and
a highly damped or maximally-closed upper part of the speaker above the ear canal.[/quote]
Therefore, in headphones or earbuds specifically designed to enhance spatial separation, the transducers are not in the center but rather offset from center. Putting the left earbud in the right ear would shift the transducer to another part of the ear that the headphone engineer didn’t intend it to be (speaker above the ear canal). Further, with the new surround sound headphones, the affect is greater. Earbuds to a lesser extent, but with headphones, the placement of treble and bass is important. Turn your ear toward your speaker and move forward and backwards. Notice how the amount of treble and bass differs in relation to where your ear is.
Whether it makes a difference to most people? Probably not. But the same could be said for wine. Many people can’t tell the difference. Additionally, most people using headphones are distracted or preoccupied with another activity. This treats the music as a background. Remember Muzak?
I’m not against portable music players, but it appears to be having an affect on why people listen to music. Many used to listen to music directly without doing anything else but relaxing. Today, most listen while doing something else. Maybe it isn’t just .mp3’s that are killing the music industry, but rather the perception of what music is now?
Thanks Elektronisk. That seems to be making a bit more logical sense now. Nothing that coudn’t be totally confounded by a bit of earwax and a lot of tinnitis, though.
Ears come in all shapes and sizes, but there is invariably a right ear and a left ear. Do not confuse them. You may lose your balance, at which point life becomes dangerously unpredictable.
but there is more to it than just fit.
