24/192 digital audio format and why it doesn’t make sense. Part 2
Perfect hearing or hereditary gift
When I receive many letters, I see that many people believe in the existence of unique people with exceptional hearing. Are there really such people with “golden ears”?
It depends on what you call exceptional hearing.
The healthy ears of young people hear better than the ears of the elderly or damaged ears. Some people are exceptionally well trained to hear all the nuances of sound and music that most people don’t even know exist. In the 90’s, it could recognize all mp3 encoders (they were all pretty bad at the time) and it could prove it in a double-blind test [2].
If a person has healthy ears and is well trained to recognize sounds, I would say that their hearing is exceptional. However, people with below average hearing may be able to notice details that elude inexperienced listeners. Exceptional hearing is largely a matter of training, not the ability to hear beyond the hearing range of ordinary mortals.
Hearing researchers would love to find someone with exceptional hearing and the ability to hear outside the auditory range to test and record the research results. I have nothing against ordinary people, but every scientist wants to find a person with genetic peculiarities to write a first-class article. We haven’t found such people in 100 years of testing, so they probably don’t exist. So sorry. But we will continue to search for more.
Love for the color spectrum
You may be skeptical about everything I just wrote because it goes against all marketing tactics. Instead, suppose people have a craze for color and deviate from the subject of sound.
The figure above shows a rough scale of the sensitivity of rods and cones in the human eye, compared to the visible spectrum. These senses respond to light in overlapping spectral bands, just as the hair cells in the ears are tuned to perceive overlapping sound frequency bands.
The human eye sees a limited range of light waves called visible radiation. Here is a direct analogy with the audibility range of sound waves. Like the ear, the eye has sensitive cells (rods and cones) that capture light in different but overlapping frequency bands.
Visible radiation begins at a frequency of approximately 400 THz (dark red) and extends to 850 THz (dark purple) [3], but visual acuity decreases with the course of life. Outside of this approximate range, the intensity of light entering your eyes can burn your retina. So it turns out that the range is quite decent even for young, healthy and genetically gifted individuals, a range that is analogous to a wide range of the audio spectrum.
Suppose in our hypothetical world, where there is a craze to expand the visible spectrum of video recordings, there is a group of people who believe that these restrictions are not generous enough. They believe that video is not only the visual spectrum, but also infrared and ultraviolet radiation. Continuing with the comparison, let’s assume that the most active part of the group (who is proud of it!) Also claims that this spread spectrum is not enough, and the video will appear more natural if microwaves and X-rays are reached there. For those who have an “eye is a diamond”, the difference will be enormous, just day and night!
Of course, this is ridiculous.
No one can see X-rays (not infrared, not ultraviolet, not microwave). No matter how strongly a person believes in what they can, the retina simply does not have the tools to perceive them.
Here’s an experiment anyone can do: Go and grab the Apple IR Remote [TV]. The LED emits a wavelength of 980 nm, roughly equal to a frequency of 306 THz, which is close to the infrared spectrum. Waves of this length are not that far out of the visible range. Take the remote control to the basement or darkest room with the lights off in your house in the middle of the night and let your eyes get used to the dark.
The image above is an Apple TV infrared remote control, captured with a digital camera. Although the emitter is bright enough and the frequency of the radiation is close to the frequency of the red part of the visible spectrum, infrared radiation is completely invisible to the human eye.
Can you see how the remote control’s LED lights up when you press the [4] button? No? Even a little peek? Try some other remotes, many of them use infrared in the 310-350 THz range.
