Amps and Women

Katharina,

It's an interesting question you pose, but its premise, I believe, is flawed. You suggest that women, inferior to men in physical strength, martial ability, what have you, needed to hear imminent danger as early as possible. Fine as far as it goes. But I do know a little of anthropology, paleontology and suggest to you that virtually everything that wasn't human, protohuman, anthropoid (pick your flavor) was just as capable of wiping out a man as a woman. Consider the "opposition": sabre tooth tigers, dire wolves, cave bears, mastodons, and whatever other creatures prowled the land, and you quickly realize that any of these critters was far too powerful for even the strongest of men to contend with. I think "rec" explained it best as a cultural thing that is changing as females get into areas once dominated by men; the attendant risks and benefits are still there. And that is manifest by the diminution of audio acuity he is now "seeing" as he tests the females in noisier occupations.

Let's not start a war here. My wife's hearing is demonstrably inferior to mine. Why? Haven't a clue, but it makes her of little use when I'm on one of my audition trips. But she's still a whole lot more sensible about this stuff than I am; I keep searching for the Holy Grail, while she says in effect, "isn't 98-99% of the way there close enough?" Good point.

One point not made here is a sort of ZEN thing. the woman is just casually LISTENING, but "golly" she is actually LISTENING to the sound of the MUSIC. You, are listening to the sound of your SYSTEM. Every little nuance, being cataloged and judged... DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE???

Very nice post, Adamanteus and I've rated it accordingly. I haven't got your training and I won't start a war either, but in the face of this mighty opposition, as you so rightly point out, was it really just our cortex, in interpreting signals though hearing, smelling, sight, whatever better than all those beasts and the Neanderthal men, that helped us to survive as a species? What your statement seems to infer, if I interpret it correctly, is something like no "need" for different sensual acuity between genders, because that would not have helped anyway against all that mighty opposition. Now what Katharina seems to imply is that the better the cortex is fed with information, the better its bearer has a chance to survive and since women, to her reasoning at least, had to lead a more "passive" existence, they needed a better "radar" to stay alive. So I think your post does not really fault her argument. To me the weak spot in in her assumption might be the passivity aspect. I think Ka's idea is fascinating, but I cannot say of course, if its valid or not.

Thanks for the flowers D, but maybe I was just too much trying to be left brained or so and if I forget the other sice it never comes out right. Elisabeth, I think you absolutely got it. I don't care a damn about what component makes the system sound this way or that, but, devil, will I hear if its "right" or not, "right" being a sort of engram in me about all the live musical events I've been to.

My wife's hearing is much keener than mine at lower SPL's. I do have some hearing damage but it only effects me at extremely low listening levels (I have had it tested off and on since my teens). My wife is not into this hobby but will sometimes complain about changes that I make to the system (cabling, etc.) and ask what "that noise" is. As far as I understand (that noise) only happens when the music is playing and has been generally present to her when I have been auditioning brighter more detailed cables. For example she hated the Illumination D60 digital cable in the system (PBJ's as well), which I actually liked until I turned up the volume well past our normal listening level and also heard some type of high frequency noise (whatever it was it was a sound that seemed to be "behind" or in addition but still accompanying the notes, if this makes any sense, it's a CD based system), she was right there was a "funny" noise. I had always thought that acute female hearing was due to the inner workings of the ear being scaled down and more delicate/sensative (I doubt if KD Lang would fill the bill, but you know what I mean). I have also noticed that generally speaking the women in my life have preferred more bass and less treble in regard to what I feel is a nice balance. I wonder if I hear more of the bass and less of the highs in comparison?