Another 'binary' test.

[Barry]

Fed up with discussions about mains cables and about defending which camp you are in? Then try this 'test', just as the "blue/gold dress" provoked division, this seems to have done the same with, as yet, no audiologist being able to explain the phenomenon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-44136799

Curiously there is a some correlation with age, and some have reported that the angle of one's ear to the sound source (if listening on radio) can change the results.

So what do you hear and how old are you?

[walpurgis]

Laurel. I don't see how that can be confused with 'yanny' even on the limited audio bandwidth of my PC monitor speakers. My age is one hundred and two, but sprightly with it!! ;)

[Barry]

Apparantly the results change with bandwidth - reducing the top end causes more people to hear "yanny", though it doesn't work for me. Regardless of bandwidth, or angle to a single reproducer, I hear the same name.

[walpurgis]

Probably a wind-up!!

[Marco]

I can hear both, in terms of one superimposing itself over the other. It sort of starts with 'Yanny', then very quickly morphs into 'Laurel'.... There are clearly elements of both words (or names) in the recording. I'm 52 and a half.

Oh, and that's only via a cheap pair of integrated speakers on my laptop!

Marco.

[mikmas]

I heard it as 'Laurel' without knowing it was supposed to be a test ... heard on Radio 3, 320K stream (http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_three.m3u8) via headphones

[struth]

On my phone speaker it sounded like YARRY.

[Jazid]

On my phone speaker it sounded like YARRY.Likewise on my phone, a weird noise as if an American bloke was affecting a fake 'Queen's English' accent. Doesn't sound like either Laurel or Yanny, daft test!

Can't imagine bothering with it on the hifi TBH.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[walpurgis]

I only heard 'laurel' yesterday through the monitor speakers. Today, through bigger speakers I hear both 'yanny' and 'laurel'. This does not sound like a normal audio signal (whatever that may be), it sounds processed to me. A trick no doubt.

[struth]

probably both words superimposed.or something like that.

[walpurgis]

probably both words superimposed.or something like that.

I think so. The 'yanny' bit seems comprised of higher frequency sounds mainly. Whereas, the 'laurel' appears full range.

[struth]

I think so. The 'yanny' bit seems comprised of higher frequency sounds mainly. Whereas, the 'laurel' appears full range.

Yup using different freq for different bits I guess. Phone took a bit of both and got yarry

[Joe]

Curiously there is a some correlation with age, and some have reported that the angle of one's ear to the sound source (if listening on radio) can change the results.

So what do you hear and how old are you?

I'm 64, and I hear 'yanny'.

[mikmas]

... this seems to have done the same with, as yet, no audiologist being able to explain the phenomenon.


Err - there was an explanation in the article you linked to Barry:

<< The secret, it turns out, is frequency. The part of the sound that makes some people hear Yanny is higher frequency than that which makes some people hear Laurel.

As Lars Riecke, assistant professor of audition and cognitive neuroscience at Maastricht University, explained to The Verge: "If you remove all the low frequencies, you hear yanny. If you remove the high frequencies, you hear laurel.
"If your... ears emphasise both the higher and lower frequencies, you can toggle between the two sounds.">>

(emphasis added)

[walpurgis]

That's more or less what I'd deduced.


<< The secret, it turns out, is frequency. The part of the sound that makes some people hear Yanny is higher frequency than that which makes some people hear Laurel.

As I mentioned.


I think so. The 'yanny' bit seems comprised of higher frequency sounds mainly. Whereas, the 'laurel' appears full range.

[Primalsea]

It could explain a lot as to why people can disagree so much and form different camps, each claiming they are correct. What could be one mans full and detailed sound from their hifi could be anothers harsh and agressive. Dare I say it could expliain go some way to explain why some people hear a difference when a cable is changed and some don’t. If your predisposed for your brain to focus on or filter out some frequencies more than others you might perceive a difference if you are not then you don’t actually need to bother worrying about that next cable purchase...

[Marco]

"If your ears emphasise both the higher and lower frequencies, you can toggle between the two sounds."


That's me then, and I suspect probably a useful tool to have for a hi-fi enthusiast!;)

Marco.

[2fastgt4]

Interesting.
I did play this over my phone for my son daughter and wife. They all have a full score on a hearing test.
My boy is 8 year . My daughter is 11.
My wife is 44.
And I am 46.
I admit to not hear anything above 14 khz.
High frequency in left ear is distorted and with tinnitus. And some dipp around 1.5khz. The right ear is ok up to 14khz but some reduced.

The funny thing here is that my son hear Laurel very clear. He is not able to hear Yanny.

And opposite with the girl. They can not hear Laurel.
Funny test.
I hear Laurel..

[Pieoftheday]

I hear Laurel,high frequency hearing loss in right lug and I use a hearing aid to compensate. I've done another test where my better half says something and then I seem have no recollection of what was said at all:)

[anthonyTD]

Yanny for me!:)
Surprised to be honest.
A...

[anthonyTD]

I fear many men do that test on a regular basis!:eek:;)
. I've done another test where my better half says something and then I seem have no recollection of what was said at all:)

[CornishPasty]

Laurel for me but why should I give a shit anyway :mental:

[anthonyTD]

Just did the test again, one ear at a time, with my left ear, I hear Yanny, with my right ear, I hear something that more resembles Laurel.
Try it. :)
A..

[mightymonoped]

Never mind “Yanni” & “Laurel”, check this out! [emoji13]

https://www.reddit.com/r/blackmagicfuckery/comments/8jxzee/you_can_hear_brainstorm_or_green_needle_based_on/

*apologies for some of the rich language in link and comments.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mr sneff]

Knock knock
Who’s there?
Laurel
Yanny who?

[Parcelmonkey]

I only heard Yanny in a distorted way. Age 52 and a few months. Ears suffer with Tinnitus, right ear can't detect over 12kHz.
From a Samsung S5 phone. I'm sure if I play it through my Linn Ds a veil will lift and I'll clearly hear voices telling me to go kill the neighbour.
Not that I really need any encouragement...

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[mightymonoped]

Never mind “Yanni” & “Laurel”, check this out! [emoji13]

https://www.reddit.com/r/blackmagicfuckery/comments/8jxzee/you_can_hear_brainstorm_or_green_needle_based_on/

*apologies for some of the rich language in link and comments.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Seriously, check this out, takes “Yanni” & “Laurel” to another level!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Barry]

I only heard Yanny in a distorted way. Age 52 and a few months. Ears suffer with Tinnitus, right ear can't detect over 12kHz.
From a Samsung S5 phone. I'm sure if I play it through my Linn Ds a veil will lift and I'll clearly hear voices telling me to go kill the neighbour.
Not that I really need any encouragement...

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

I have only heard the test via radio (the first, a cheap digital jobbie in London, the second a Roberts, in Chelmsford and each was tuned to a different station; not that that should make a difference). The first time I heard LAUREN (and not "Laurel"), but the more the test was repeated the more it sounded to me like Laurel.

Unlike optical illusions which can appear as one of two different pictures depending on one's viewpoint, but when the second image is pointed out, it becomes easy to see, and one can 'switch' between the two versions. But try as I might, I can't hear YANNY, though I can detect a nasal "N" in the sound.

According to experts, the ambiguity arises because both names have the same number of syllables and have equal energy content; one name occupies a lower frequency range, the second a higher frequency range.

[CageyH]

I hear nothing but Yanny, not matter how hard I try.

[Pharos]

This is interesting, and the internal database/reference/context is always involved in perception. There must be analogues to the two optical illusions I know; The beautiful young girl and the old hag, and The rotating woman.

Spectral distribution will obviously be better perceived by the young, my right ear has lost above 6k now, but I did win a court case against the perpetrators which enabled me to buy my Betas.

Does anyone else have difficulty with understanding some speech by younger people, the formants having changed very much over the last few decades?

To me whole phonemes are often missing from current speech, and an explosive tympanic style has taken over with a bass prominence, as opposed to a subtley laced series of interweaving sounds.

I find current films badly recorded speech wise compared with 60s and 70s films, and little attention paid to attempting to recreate a natural voice sound. People in a desert do not sound like they are in a wardrobe.

[Joe]

Does anyone else have difficulty with understanding some speech by younger people, the formants having changed very much over the last few decades?

Nope. But maybe that's because there's been younger people in our house for many years, or because I've been a student, and thus around younger people for the past five years. Women's voices do seem to be getting deeper, though. Maybe it's because they smoke more.

[Barry]

Nope. But maybe that's because there's been younger people in our house for many years, or because I've been a student, and thus around younger people for the past five years. Women's voices do seem to be getting deeper, though. Maybe it's because they smoke more.

Women's voices in general, or those that you know personally?

[Joe]

Women's voices in general, or those that you know personally?

Younger women's voices in general. More specifically, those of young female university students. There have always been women with 'husky' voices, but these days they form the majority of those I hear.

[Pigmy Pony]

I too find that increasing numbers of women have deeper voices, and their hands have been getting bigger too. Or maybe it's just the clubs I frequent :)

[walpurgis]

I too find that increasing numbers of women have deeper voices, and their hands have been getting bigger too. Or maybe it's just the clubs I frequent :)

There's one goes in my local. Calls herself Dave.