stuffs recorded/mixed in stereo, so some sounds are designed to be heard from the left speaker, and others from the right, so if u plugem into your correct holes, you hear the recording as the author intended

incredible isn't it, and a brand new discovery

and if you buy 2 more pairs of headphones, you can plug them into the rest of your holes for 5.1 surround pleasure

or 7.1 if you're extreme

Sure, recordings are set up with spatial separation to create a sound stage, but apart from knowing that an orchestra always has clarinets on the right, etc., or if you are playing a computer game, why does it matter which is left and which is right? It's not like our ears work differently.

Gizmo said..
To get the crowd FX, field SFX going left to right.

When you are matching to video content, of course it matters. But Haircut's reply was inferring that even pure audio, was intended to be a particular way around. That was what I was wondering about?

The headphones for my I phone and I pad are not identical.

They are the same in appearance but are on the opposite hand.

ET.

Gizmo said..

As someone that makes a living from mixing sound for TV, I /we go to huge effort to get the left / right orientation correct.
To get the crowd FX, field SFX going left to right.
Have a watch of Bathurst this weekend with headphones and watch the cars go around there is nothing worse than seeing the car on the screen go opposite direction to the sound.
Most 'drama' TV series has quite good stereo in it, movies will have good L/R content.

Yes it is just not right if the car/bike goes left to right but the sound goes r to l partic if using headphones in wrong ear

Most 60's music (in stereophonic!) had A very distinct L/R balance

Hygiene.

You shouldn't put something from your left ear to your right as if you have an infection in one, you will transfer it to the other.

But also the sound balance.

Yes you can swap the L+ wire with the R+ wire going to the speakers / headphones no problem...... all that will happen is the signals are swapped.

Yes you can swap L+ with L- and on the other side R+ with R- all this will do is the speakers operate in a 'reverse phase mode' which is a little less efficent but most people wont pick it.

The L- and R- are normally connected together at a common point, (in the amplifier or headphone plug)

Now if you want to try something tricky get another speaker from somewhere and connect from that extra speaker the + connection to L+ of the amplifier and the - of the extra speaker to the R+ of the amplifier...... What the extra speaker has in it is the 'difference' between L and R, so a mono signal like voice will not be in that extra speaker but in wide stereo there will be quite a lot of info there...

It's a 'cheap mans surround sound' set up..... Dolby surround it's not but its great to watch movies and listen to music with.

Thankyou Youngbull, nice post.

This is a pretty misunderstood aspect of our brains L/R cognition.

So far nobody has taken into account the L and R handedness of the brain. What the composer intended for each hemisphere of the brain will indeed be "heard" by our brain (irregardless of our conscious deciphering) differently according to which hemisphere receives which intended stereoscopic band. Your R handed "logical" hemisphere will hear/interpret a L handed "creative" track differently and vice versa.

Obviously as the posts so far imply it is extremely subtle so the only way I can foresee out of the turgid miasma is to conduct further studies with partially deaf people AND Pink Floyd.....

My guess is that bass is obviously logical so ergo R and solo's are creative and L?????

Don't believe me? For instance the brains hemispheres are so subtle, they even affect smell.

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/267236

slammin said..
Obviously as the posts so far imply it is extremely subtle so the only way I can foresee out of the turgid miasma is to conduct further studies with partially deaf people AND Pink Floyd.....

I think most of their fans are, so not hard to find the target group

dogfish said..

Harrow said..
It's not like our ears work differently.

They do, actually.

www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain

Okay, here is a REALLY weird one for you. If my father-in-law blocks his left ear, even though he hears everything clearly in his right ear, he cannot understand speech. He says he can hear the speech just fine, but has no idea what you are saying. It's not a physical hearing defect, as both his ears test equally well across the frequency spectrum, it's some weird information processing thing in his brain.

left handed people were deprived of oxygen at birth and suffered subtle brain damage.

myusernam said..

left handed people were deprived of oxygen at birth and suffered subtle brain damage.

Hey - I resemble that!

kiteboy dave said..
Saw this on the telly a little while ago, which way is the bus going to go if it drives off forwards?

In opposite directions obviously.