a reply to:
luthier
Actually, you still don’t understand it and your link doesn’t explain it.
The
Fletcher-Munson curves illustrate the frequency response of the human ear
at different sound pressure levels. They are, obviously, averages; the actual response will vary from person to person.
The F-M curves explain why bass and high treble sounds are fainter to our ears than ‘midrange’ sounds, to which our ears are more responsive and
which are, not coincidentally, the frequencies mainly used by human speech.
In the old days, when hi-fi amplifiers had lots of tone controls, a Loudness switch was a common sight on the front panel. When you pressed it, it
progressively increased the bass and treble settings as you lowered the volume on the amp. Nowadays, because hi-fi has become highly consumerized,
most amps lack a loudness switch but the amp circuitry is sometimes jiggered to boost high and low frequencies at low volume anyway.
*
See here,
luthier. I have some positive feelings for you. I know you genuinely love music, and that you really mean no harm. But — seriously
— you don’t know quite as much as you think you do. Sometimes you say things that are false or wrong, and those who know better may feel impelled
to correct you. Don’t take every attempt to set you right as a personal attack.
You may believe it or not as you please, but I actually have some academic mileage in acoustics and psychoacoustics, in addition to having been a
musician and music obsessive for thirty years. I know my way around an experimental audio lab as well as a recording studio
and a stage. And
— whether you think so or not — I never make any statement that I cannot substantiate. I don’t google or cut and paste except to provide a
citable source. I don’t need to; as you can see, I am perfectly capable of writing my own explanations and descriptions.
Stop thinking of every disagreement with what you say as a personal attack on you. It isn’t. Discuss things civilly, instead of getting your back up
every time someone contradicts you, and you won’t be shamed by people laying traps for your ignorance.