Internal acoustics

[ingvar ahlberg]

This thread may be placed in wrong forum, but bear with me a while, redirect if totally out of place. During passed weekend i caught a cold, a real massive one. So comming home from work today i found it appropiate to console myself with some good music, started with Merle Haggard "serving 190 proof" and yes i had treated myself to a small Laphroig to go with Merle. This record sounds really good, well balanced with a tremendeous lf extension. Problem was; no bass extremely shrieky and offensive hf, changing records and playing what i know sounds good and have good lf i realise everything sounds crap. I still feel the bass thou, just as usual, just don´t hear it. So i´ve got a cold, a real shitty one, my entire head, normaly empty, is filled with phlegm and snot, so the resonance cavity is out of work, hence the lack of bass? Ok i can understand that, but as my entire head is filled with this snot-stuff ( i think related to the deadly yellow snow crystals) to the level where i feel my eardrums bulging outwards, shouldnt hf being the first to suffer? So is there anyonehere that can explain this medically/physically. Ponder on this while i go refill or maybe open the penultimate bottle of Port ellen.

 

[Cal Weldon]

Can't comment on the medical side of things but I too lose the bass when I have a head cold...

Or I'm tired...

Or one too many beers...

With me it seems to be a collapsing of the eustachian tubes. Oops, I guess I just talked about the medical side. Anyway, it's not unusual to lose the bass and not the highs at least from my perspective. Perhaps yours are temporarily plugged or impeded?

 

[BHTX]

Your ears are filled with fluid and/or your Eustachian tubes are clogged. Eustachian tubes are small thin structures that run from the back of your throat to your middle ear. They equalize the pressure on both sides of your eardrum, or tympanic membrane, and open when you swallow, etc. They often become clogged when you're sick, which leads to a build up of pressure on the eardrum from the air pressure not being equalized on both sides of the eardrum.. outside of the ear and on the other side of the tympanic membrane in the middle ear. This can also lead to a build of fluid in the middle ear and is usually the cause of ear infections.

I've had this many times, so I've done my research in the past, lol. The last ear infection was a couple months or so ago, and lasted for over 2 months straight. I thought I was gonna go insane. Antibiotics weren't working. Then, suddenly one day, it cleared up on its own. I also had an appt with an ENT doc that day, so when I got there, it had just cleared up. Wasted $265 without insurance. Oh well. I was so relieved it was finally gone, and I could hear again.

Aside from ear infections, I believe my Eustachian tubes are probably a little smaller than the norm, so they tend to collapse and get clogged a lot.. like every single time I get sick with a head cold or anything. I often even have problems with them when I'm not sick, and sometimes they get stuck open (really annoying!). This could be all you're suffering from. Or, it could lead to a minor ear infection (acute otitis media). It'll get better, just give it some time.

Edit: attached a pic..

Edit again: Also, I forgot to mention.. I've found that a build up of fluid in the middle ear (often occurs during an ear infection) tends to cause a lack of high frequencies (literally feels like cotton stuffed in your ears!), while unequalized air pressure (often occurs during a head cold) tends to cause a lack of low frequencies (and you can feel the pressure on your ear drums). Either way, the Eustachian tubes aren't opening up. Since you said you can't hear low frequencies, you simply have a lack of air in your middle ear, and the outside air pressure is higher. They'll open eventually, once your cold beings to subside.

 

[ingvar ahlberg]

So, had a cup of tea and another tiny Laphroig, feels better, head is filled with air again, or maybe more accurate, empty again. This eustachian tube ( Sovtek or Svetlana?) no risk of this going white as moustache and beard is there? Rambling long enough now i´ll try to get to the point, the dramatical differences in how we percieve how things sound, i suppose that You, friends and fellow audio-or something-philes have gone through the different ear manipulating moves. Stretching, folding etc and found out how much the slightest deformation of original form affects Your perception of sound. I also suppose, or putting myself really out on a limb, that You have tried the inner cardboard tube that is left when You´re out of toiletpaper, theese, attached to the ears, also affects the percieved sound tremendeously, i think " overnite sensation" actually is better with theese than without.
Seriously thou, seeing how the slightest external or internal rearrangement dramatically affects what you think you hear we should try to have more respect for what others claim they hear. Still i would like to know if someone has used the papertubes on a live gig, like GD or something comparable, Simon&Garfunkel in central park not counted.

 

[Andersonix]

Paper tubes might be interesting for a minute, but why bother when you have perfectly good sound collectors on the ends of your arms? And they're infinitely adjustable! If you need more amplification, make yourself a set of these.

Lycka till!

 

[ingvar ahlberg]

Right on!
I´ll go for a set of theese, Rudolph can blow his nose purpur, i´ll still be the neatest guy at Hultsfred. What´s the correct distance between rivets?