Do women hear things men don't?

JoeE SP9

JoeE SP9

Senior Audioholic
Is there something women hear or don't hear that makes them feel and/or respond differently to reproduced sound than men do? I would like to leave the equipment out of this discussion.:cool:
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
JoeE SP9 said:
Is there something women hear or don't hear that makes them feel and/or respond differently to reproduced sound than men do? I would like to leave the equipment out of this discussion.:cool:

Maybe their hearing is not as badly deteriorated as mens due to the workplace?
However, they are not immune to human bais anymore than men are. So, any claims made for them must be treated no differently.
 
Rip Van Woofer

Rip Van Woofer

Audioholic General
This is obviously an outgrowth of a point made in the tubes vs. solid-state thread. Good topic for discussion on its own!

It's often claimed that womens' high-frequency hearing is better than mens', and that they retain their high-freqency hearing longer. Hence, it is also claimed that women are more sensitive to distortion at high frequencies.

Based on that, at least a few writers and 'philes of both the objective and subjective persuasions have suggested that one good subjective test of a system is how well the woman (or women) in your life tolerates the sound at high volume.

I've heard this for at least 30 years but honestly don't know if its true or just an audio old wives' tale. Is there an audiologist in the house?

Women are indeed just as susceptible to bias and suggestion as the other half of the human population as mtrycrafts pointed out.

My wife, admittedly no audiophile by any stretch, thinks that a lot of the high-end audio belief system is pretty funny. She also thinks my system sounds pretty good except when I'm playing Mahler. :D
 
H

House de Kris

Enthusiast
I would say that, YES, women most definately hear things men don't. For example, a few weeks ago I said, "I'm going to the Kwikee-Mart to get a couple things" as I headed out the door. Well, at least that is what I heard. Alas, she heard something completely different. Apparently, she heard me say, "I'm going out for a while and having wild sex with all the females I see on the street. Don't wait up for me."

Different, yes. Better, I don't know.
 
Shinerman

Shinerman

Senior Audioholic
I have heard that women are more sensitive to high frequencies. Is this true? Not sure but when I was auditioning speakers for my system I tried to take my wife as much as possible. She was clearly more sensitive to speakers that were "bright" in their presentation. She actually could not stand the Klipsch and even Polk speakers. Klipsch have never been that "bright" to me but she definitely heard it. I never mentioned any preconceived notions on my part about any of the speakers. She loved the Boston speakers I ended up with and really liked the Energy C9. Granted none of this is any scientific proof but it is interesting that someone that knows nothing about speaker sound characteristics and how they vary from speaker to speaker could have such a strong reaction to various speakers.

Anyway, just my .02 cents.

Shinerman
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
Rip Van Woofer said:
This is obviously an outgrowth of a point made in the tubes vs. solid-state thread. Good topic for discussion on its own!

It's often claimed that womens' high-frequency hearing is better than mens', and that they retain their high-freqency hearing longer. Hence, it is also claimed that women are more sensitive to distortion at high frequencies.

Based on that, at least a few writers and 'philes of both the objective and subjective persuasions have suggested that one good subjective test of a system is how well the woman (or women) in your life tolerates the sound at high volume.

I've heard this for at least 30 years but honestly don't know if its true or just an audio old wives' tale. Is there an audiologist in the house?

Women are indeed just as susceptible to bias and suggestion as the other half of the human population as mtrycrafts pointed out.

My wife, admittedly no audiophile by any stretch, thinks that a lot of the high-end audio belief system is pretty funny. She also thinks my system sounds pretty good except when I'm playing Mahler. :D

I may need to review a couple of articles on Just Noticable Differences to see if any women were used. And there was an older research paper in the 1980 or so that used physically blind listeners but they didn't perform any better than sighted listeners.
 
Rip Van Woofer

Rip Van Woofer

Audioholic General
House de Kris said:
... Apparently, she heard me say, "I'm going out for a while and having wild sex with all the females I see on the street. Don't wait up for me."...
Admit it: you were thinking it! They read minds too, you know. :D

All kidding aside: Where's our unregistered friend The Lone Female in this discussion? I have a feeling she's lurking out there.
 
JoeE SP9

JoeE SP9

Senior Audioholic
I wonder if the ringing inherent in many dome tweeters is what Shinerman's S.O. heard and objected to. After a lady friend brought the ringing in some tweeters to my attention I can hear it in most dome tweeters. :cool:
 
JohnA

JohnA

Audioholic Chief
My $0.02

My wife and I are both movie junkies (thank you Blockbuster for the movie pass) anyway...we have very different hearing, I need to have the volume up to the med-high range so I don't hear the AC, the next door dog, the washer, etc... and i can enjoy the movie, my wife can have it at have the volume and hear it fine , but for me all other sounds get in the way. I do know that I hear things that my wife doesn't (no not the voices :) ) I can hear the crickets, the motor for the dish washer (not running the cycle, the motor itself, the difference in speakers and other noises that drive me crazy! So yes we do hear things differently...and yes we can read each others thoughts, just as if the other said it out loud. :)
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
JohnA said:
My wife and I are both movie junkies (thank you Blockbuster for the movie pass) anyway...we have very different hearing, I need to have the volume up to the med-high range so I don't hear the AC, the next door dog, the washer, etc... and i can enjoy the movie, my wife can have it at have the volume and hear it fine , but for me all other sounds get in the way. I do know that I hear things that my wife doesn't (no not the voices :) ) I can hear the crickets, the motor for the dish washer (not running the cycle, the motor itself, the difference in speakers and other noises that drive me crazy! So yes we do hear things differently...and yes we can read each others thoughts, just as if the other said it out loud. :)

You may want to ask you wife if she hears them if she concentrates, and just blocks it out or it just doesn't bother her even if she hears it. Some women are not that critical listeners but still may have keen hearing for other things? ;)
 
JohnA

JohnA

Audioholic Chief
mtrycrafts said:
You may want to ask you wife if she hears them if she concentrates, and just blocks it out or it just doesn't bother her even if she hears it. Some women are not that critical listeners but still may have keen hearing for other things? ;)

I'm not too shure she does....sometimes she doesn't even hear the things I do (stop talking to me!!! please make the voice stop :eek: ) I think she just doesn't hear it.
 

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