On 04/03/2014 06:12 AM, William Sommerwerck wrote:
"Phil Allison" wrote in message ...

I said "phase or timing differences", when I should have said "phase".
Above about 1kHz, phase differences are not used for directionality.

** But time of arrival for any transient is CRUCIAL !!

You're knowledgeable tons of things, but here you're wrong.


The ear cannot and does not hear phase

This is fact (read any book on acoustics). I confirmed it 44 years ago
when I used an oscillator with fixed and variable-phase output feeding
stereo headphones.

** Phase differences are not heard on headphones at all -- with *SINE*
waves.

They are. Not only do the books say so -- but I've done the experiment.
The ear/brain can hear phase differences -- //steady-state differences//
(not just polarity reversals) up to about 1kHz. Not surprisingly, this
frequency roughly corresponds to the acoustic wavelength of the head.


But with speech, music and other real sounds, reverse phase is VERY
obvious.

You didn't read what I wrote.

There is no summation and comb filtering, flanging, etc., with
earphones regardless of phase differences between L and R.