Listening with[out] glasses (?)

[RFP]

This post will probably confirm the fact that I'm Looney Tunes, but here goes anyway... [:$]

It seems that I really enjoy listening much better with my eyeglasses off !

Anybody else find this to be true? Anybody care to speculate why this might be anything more than my imagination?

Nutz in Texas,

Rob

[ben.]

I wear glasses and to be honest I wish you hadn't brought it up! I'm sure the lenses create all kinds of strange reflections and HF chaos.

Really... thanks.

[dtel]

Probably because you can't see as good without the glasses, less distractions.

Like when you close your eyes when listening to music, it sounds different, less distractions ?

[rcarlton]

Wild. I generally take mine off when listening.

[chops]

Funny... Back when I wore glasses, I used to do the same exact thing. The real funny thing is that I thought there was a difference in sound as well.

[oldbuckster]

There is aline from Traffic's 40,000 Headman........"If I had to make a choice from the Deaf Man or the Blind........I know just where my feet should go, and that's enough for me;"..I would rather be blind than deaf..........atleast I could hear the MUSIC........Think About it.......................................When alone I tend to close my eyes when I listen to Music...

[maxg]

I absolutely never wear my glasses when listening - but not for any sonic benefit - just never saw the need. Room looks much tidier that way too. []

If I get chance to listen tonight I will try it with my glasses on - just to see if there is any difference.

I would guess if it does make a difference it could be your frames picking up some of the vibrations and carry them into your ears via the sides of your skull.

That would be akin to the difference you hear in your own voice when you listen to a recording of it.

[colterphoto1]

Probably because you can't see as good without the glasses, less distractions.

Like when you close your eyes when listening to music, it sounds different, less distractions ?

listening w/o glasses = the Woodog effect

I always remove mine as well, even during HT, when I really need them to see the screen, especially the teeny tiny type used for the credits- don't they KNOW we're not watching this on a 40 foot screen?

[chops]

The credits look fine on my 9 foot wide screen.

[SilverSport]

sounds plausable to me...you concentrate on LISTENING when you aren't distracted by looking at anything...

Bill

[ScorpsFan]

Does the fact that I wear tri-focals mean I'll get three times the pleasure? []

Seriously, I used to close my eyes too before I started wearing glasses full time and I'd guess better focus and lack of distractions certainly helps the listening experience.

[wuzzzer]

Sometimes I close my eyes but I'll have to try the glasses off trick.

[jdm56]

This post will probably confirm the fact that I'm Looney Tunes, but here goes anyway... [:$]

It seems that I really enjoy listening much better with my eyeglasses off !

Anybody else find this to be true? Anybody care to speculate why this might be anything more than my imagination?

Nutz in Texas,

Rob

You're not looney or nuts. Or at least if you are, you aren't the only one because I've found the same thing to be true. I don't have an explanation, but I don't really think it affects the sound, I would tend to think it's probably some kind of a brain thing like how music seems to sound better in a darkened room. I think the less visual information your brain is processing, the better job it does with the audio. Make sense?

[RichardP]

This post will probably confirm the fact that I'm Looney Tunes, but here goes anyway... [:$]

It seems that I really enjoy listening much better with my eyeglasses off !

Anybody else find this to be true? Anybody care to speculate why this might be anything more than my imagination?

Nutz in Texas,

Rob

You're not looney or nuts. Or at least if you are, you aren't the

only one because I've found the same thing to be true. I don't have an

explanation, but I don't really think it affects the sound, I would

tend to think it's probably some kind of a brain thing like how music

seems to sound better in a darkened room. I think the less visual

information your brain is processing, the better job it does with the

audio. Make sense?

Yes it does. As they did for Homer in an early Simpsons episode, bring

me your form and I will stamp it with "Officially not insane."

In reality, I am a psychology professor (not a shrink, an academic),

and the eyeglasses off phenomenon is simply a matter of attentional

resource allocation. Humans are "limited capacity processors," meaning

we only have a limited amount of mental effort to allocate to any

particular task at any particular time. When you take off the glasses,

you are reducing the current visual processing demands (meaning less

visual input from the surroundings), and thus there is more

attention and cognitive processing available for a concurrent auditory

task (i.e., critically listening to the music). However, you probably

do not go completely "blind" w/o the glasses with no visual input at

all, so what also probably happens is that over the years of wearing

glasses, you have formed expectations about what happens when you take

the glasses off; namely, you purposely don't try as hard to process

your visual surroundings, so there is also a learned motivational

change in processing when the glasses come off. The net result, again,

is more mental resources to apply to the audio task.

Some comedian has a line, maybe it's Steven Wright, who observed "When

we are driving around trying to find an specific address, why do we

turn the radio down?" It's the same phenomenon. You turn the radio down

to allocate more attentional resources to the visual search task.

[ben.]

You guys have got this all wrong - think acoustics, not psychology. You're dealing with reflective surfaces larger than your outer ear (unless you happen to be British royalty) that aren't meant to be 3-4 inches from your ears. Do a quick search on HRTF (head related transfer functions). Our brains have become extremely sensitive to minute differences of this nature as a survival mechanism over the past thousands of years.

I perceive a very slight improvement in localization and stereo image cohesiveness without the specs. I never really tried this, though I noticed a much more significant difference when dealing with baseball hats long ago. I pretty much always wear my glasses unless I'm sleeping or otherwise unconcerned with... er... musical reproduction.

[mark1101]

I don't wear glasses. But....when I go to outdoor concerts I usually wear sunglasses. I never noticed a difference in sound with them on or off.

This goes for listening to my own system outdoors in the backyard with or without sunglasses. I just never noticed a difference.

But maybe there is one. I guess I need to do a little test. I'll try it tonight in the listening room. My kids will think I'm nuts.

Maybe there is a pair of optimal glasses that actually improve the sound.[]

[flannj]

This post will probably confirm the fact that I'm Looney Tunes, but here goes anyway... [:$]

It seems that I really enjoy listening much better with my eyeglasses off !

Anybody else find this to be true? Anybody care to speculate why this might be anything more than my imagination?

Nutz in Texas,

Rob

You're not looney or nuts. Or at least if you are, you aren't the only one because I've found the same thing to be true. I don't have an explanation, but I don't really think it affects the sound, I would tend to think it's probably some kind of a brain thing like how music seems to sound better in a darkened room. I think the less visual information your brain is processing, the better job it does with the audio. Make sense?

Yes it does. As they did for Homer in an early Simpsons episode, bring me your form and I will stamp it with "Officially not insane."

In reality, I am a psychology professor (not a shrink, an academic), and the eyeglasses off phenomenon is simply a matter of attentional resource allocation. Humans are "limited capacity processors," meaning we only have a limited amount of mental effort to allocate to any particular task at any particular time. When you take off the glasses, you are reducing the current visual processing demands (meaning less visual input from the surroundings), and thus there is more attention and cognitive processing available for a concurrent auditory task (i.e., critically listening to the music). However, you probably do not go completely "blind" w/o the glasses with no visual input at all, so what also probably happens is that over the years of wearing glasses, you have formed expectations about what happens when you take the glasses off; namely, you purposely don't try as hard to process your visual surroundings, so there is also a learned motivational change in processing when the glasses come off. The net result, again, is more mental resources to apply to the audio task.

Some comedian has a line, maybe it's Steven Wright, who observed "When we are driving around trying to find an specific address, why do we turn the radio down?" It's the same phenomenon. You turn the radio down to allocate more attentional resources to the visual search task.

Some of us more than others.

I would have to go with this theory rather than the acoustical effect from the surface area of the glasses themselves. Think about it, most of us perceive a difference with eyes open vs. eyes closed. No glasses involved or change in surface area yet a difference none the less. Free the brain up to concentrate resulting in a difference in perception. The alternative would be as Bullwinkle J. Moose would say "no brain, no effect"

- Jim

[bigfishe]

I turn off all the lights and watch the tubes a glow YES

[Seadog]

Glasses off. Eyes closed, head tilted slightly downward []

[dtel]

This post will probably confirm the fact that I'm Looney Tunes, but here goes anyway... [:$]

It seems that I really enjoy listening much better with my eyeglasses off !

Anybody else find this to be true? Anybody care to speculate why this might be anything more than my imagination?

Nutz in Texas,

Rob

You're not looney or nuts. Or at least if you are, you aren't the only one because I've found the same thing to be true. I don't have an explanation, but I don't really think it affects the sound, I would tend to think it's probably some kind of a brain thing like how music seems to sound better in a darkened room. I think the less visual information your brain is processing, the better job it does with the audio. Make sense?

Yes it does. As they did for Homer in an early Simpsons episode, bring me your form and I will stamp it with "Officially not insane."

In reality, I am a psychology professor (not a shrink, an academic), and the eyeglasses off phenomenon is simply a matter of attentional resource allocation. Humans are "limited capacity processors," meaning we only have a limited amount of mental effort to allocate to any particular task at any particular time. When you take off the glasses, you are reducing the current visual processing demands (meaning less visual input from the surroundings), and thus there is more attention and cognitive processing available for a concurrent auditory task (i.e., critically listening to the music). However, you probably do not go completely "blind" w/o the glasses with no visual input at all, so what also probably happens is that over the years of wearing glasses, you have formed expectations about what happens when you take the glasses off; namely, you purposely don't try as hard to process your visual surroundings, so there is also a learned motivational change in processing when the glasses come off. The net result, again, is more mental resources to apply to the audio task.

Some comedian has a line, maybe it's Steven Wright, who observed "When we are driving around trying to find an specific address, why do we turn the radio down?" It's the same phenomenon. You turn the radio down to allocate more attentional resources to the visual search task.

Yes, that's what i said,.....................only much much better.[]

Thank you []