atmasphere
Active member
What many people don't get is that the ear has one particular sensitivity that exceeds most test gear- and in this regard, the assumption often made is that test gear can detect stuff below the threshold of human hearing, which most of the time is true. But when it comes to the detection of higher ordered harmonics, the ear easily keeps up with any test equipment I've seen. This is because the ear is finely tuned to pick them up as it uses them to determine how loud a sound is rather than fundamentals. In addition, the ear is tuned to be the most sensitive at birdsong frequencies (Fletcher-Munson) where many higher ordered harmonics occur. But the problem is trickier than that- the ear's masking principle seems to play a huge role in how this all works. This has to do with the presence (or lack of) the 2nd and 3rd orders, which can mask higher ordered harmonics.