When you’re smiling
March 17th, 2006What with the cold weather and assorted other things I’ve noticed if I’m not smiling (or on the positive side of neutral) when I’m wearing earphones the sound is much flatter and deadened. It must be because smiling pushes your ears out slightly and changes the resonant space in your ear slightly.
Maybe the ‘iPod effect’ is owners of new toys being happy whilst listening to their music and noticing the improvement in the sound. Maybe it’s not smugness after all, just satisfaction.
Talking of which I think African Head Charge’s ‘Hymn’ must be the happiest piece of music I’ve heard.
March 17th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
I know what you’re talking about. In my case, I’ve noticed it has to do with the way my ear canals are shaped – smiling moves my face in such a way that the earphones get pulled up further into the ear canal (I have the kind of headphone that is stuck in the ear like an earplug, not an earbud). I think this has to do with the fact that most earphones are constructed to push the sound into your head at a 0-degree angle, when they really should be pushing the sound UP into your earhole.
You think companies would have figured this out by now…