Listening with[out] glasses (?)

[PhilMays]

I always take my glasses off for a romantic interlude with my wife...seems to heighten the experience.

I guess it would do the same for music as well.

[pauln]

My system sounds better after I get a haircut.

My Stratocaster sounds better after I shine it.

My Mazda runs smoother after I wash it.

[seti]

Pour a glass of wine

Turn on the hi-fi

Close your eyes

Enjoy the tunes

[WMcD]

I think this is correct based on observations.

When eyeglass wearers are asked to listen for some small sound, they will take off their glasses.

You might try this with an a random subject (person). Just say, did you hear that?

Gil

[RichardP]

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.

If one wears glasses like these, then I must acknowledge the plausibility of your hypothesis.

[Hardhead]

But do we see better when the stereo is playing?

[ben.]

Heh.. doesn't everyone?

Seriously though, I'm not discounting the psychological/perceptual aspect of the issue, but there's a simpler explanation for it. When I'm mixing or otherwise listening critically I've always instinctively closed my eyes to eliminate distractions. But when you can explain it with physics who needs psychics? Just move your hand (a much less reflective surface than glass or plastic as found in eyeglasses) around near your ear and listen closely. Close your eyes or turn off the lights if you must, but you should hear slight changes.

Anyone care to do a little reading on HRTFs or is everyone happy in the dark on this one? The minute differences in information between the two ears are some of the most detectable data our brains deal with. To think that placing a relatively large two-sided reflective surface between our ears would be undetectable doesn't make any sense. See the Schneider disc microphone array as an exaggerated example. Also look at the Aachen Head research (by Neumann, I think) if you care.

Also, who said removing the glasses leads the brain to concentrate on other things? Who's to say the brain doesn't devote even more resources in an effort to make sense of the lower quality information being sent its way from our defective eyes?

Do I think it matters all that much? Not really. The sonic differences aren't all that major or important to my enjoyment of music. They're there, but a pitch/catch scenario for me. More cohesive? Better seperation? Pick your compromise.