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Re: [AUDITORY] speakers at ear level

Sam,

I’m no physicist but was a sound engineer once… The phenomenon you're describing is well known and has to do with the directionality of high frequencies. What they tell you in sound engineering 101 is to place your tweeters at ear level because they are the ones that emit high frequencies (~ 1-2 kHz and higher). Woofers can be lower, higher, whatever you want because they emit low and mid frequencies.

Here’s a nice little blog post that tries to explain the physics of it: https://www.theaudioblog.org/post/why-high-frequencies-are-directional-and-low-aren-t . I don’t think there’s much psychology here to be honest - just the fact that your auditory system receives less high frequency power when your ears are not level with the tweeters.

I’m sure there are much more competent people here that will be able to explain the physics in greater detail… but hope this helps.

Best,
Chris
--
Krzysztof Basiński, PhD
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Medical University of Gdańsk
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On 19 Jun 2025, at 12:07, Samuel Mehr <sam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi all, I was moving offices, set up speakers at my desk and was reminded of the quite striking difference in sound quality when speakers are at ear level vs below (even if angled up toward the ears). 

I was just wondering if anyone has resources explaining why this phenomenon occurs — has this been studied in any depth? I imagine the physics of it are plain enough to model, but one also wonders about the psychology of it, which probably is less straightforward.

thanks,
Sam

———
Samuel Mehr
School of Psychology, University of Auckland
and Child Study Center, Yale University
Be a citizen scientist at themusiclab.org!