Music to My Ears

Dear Lowdown:

Most headphones have an “L” and “R” piece, distinguishing which earpiece goes in the left and right ears. Why is this? How is it determined what sound plays in what ear?

Rebecca Lawson (Chicago)



Rebecca,

You raise a callow question far below the level of your intellect. And thus, I am forced to respond simplistically.Your question is the equivalent to asking, “why do we have right and left shoes.” Shoe companies assume that when you wear shoes incorrectly, you will switch the shoes onto different feet, raising your comfort level. Headphone companies assume the same, and go above and beyond to make sure you know which headphone is for your right and left ear because wearing them should be comfortable.

Your second question, however, has actual merit. It is an interesting topic and I’ve therefore decided to answer it becauseI am quite curious to know the result.

In simple terms, sound is the vibration of air molecules. Sound travels in waves like light and heat, and the initial vibration dictates the sound. Think of sound waves as ripples: you can either put a finger in calm water or throw a car into the water. When you watch the ripples, you will notice that each one has different characteristics.The different assortment of ripples represents the different types of sound.

Make sense? Good.

Headphones are made of several different components: the stationary magnet, iron coil, skin conformed around a metal perimeter (like a drum). In order for sound to travel, an initial vibration must occur. The headphone bud makes an initial vibration that vibrates the air in your inner ear.

Let’s turn to an example.Now, imagine that you purchased a Kanye West cd. You take the cd from the case, and pop it into your Walkman and start listening to the jam. After a couple seconds, you hear the bass, the vocals, the guitar, and the drums. What happened? Your headphones carried the pre-recorded data from the cd and the headphones copied the motion. Inside the headphone is the wire, iron coil, magnet, and drum skin. First, the pre-recorded data was sent from the music player to the headphone by the wire via electric impulses. The wire carried the electrical impulses to the coil, causing the coil to become an electromagnet. The coil was either attracted or repelled by the stationary magnet and banged itself rapidly against the skin conformed around the metal perimeter. The vibration created sound by using the air inside of your ear canal and converged onto the auditory nerve.
My five-year-old cousin asked me a very interesting question while I was babysitting him: How do humans understand the sound waves and interpret them as music? I was amazed by the question and decided to integrate the answer in my response.
In headphones, sound travels through the outer ear canal. The vibration of the air molecules travels through the outer ear canal and causes the vibration of basilar membrane: a membrane lined with hair follicle cells. The movement of the hair follicles “triggers impulses in the adjacent nerve fibers”, and “converges into the auditory nerve” (Myers 78). When the brain enjoys a certain sound, it tends to want to hear it over again. Thus, we, humans, pick out sounds favorable to us.

Understand? If you didn’t, read the paragraph again.

Let’s get back to your second question. Many musicians use a number of instruments when creating music. Typically, musicians use a guitar, bass, drums, and, of course, the singer’s vocals. When recording the music, musicians typically record their music to be heard from a number of speakers. Speakers are manufactured for specific purposes; one speaker may be tuned towards treble sounds while one may be tuned towards bass sounding sounds. When manufacturers create headphones, they keep this information in mind; each headphone contains every type of sound, some are just more tuned than others.

(Forgive this interruption in thought, but it is necessary that I explain a rather annoying part of the brain. The coordination of movement on my RIGHT side, understanding of language, and memory is part of the LEFT hemisphere. The RIGHT hemisphere is stronger in performing tasks dealing with creativity, perceptual tasks, and movement on the LEFT side. When the two hemispheres need to speak to one another, information is sent across the Corpus Callosum, allowing the hemispheres to “communicate. This information is relevant to people with severed Corpus Callosum, and is another reason why headphones are labeled; it is more important to hear lyrics rather than an extremely loud drum.)

For example, my right headphone will be more tuned towards vocals rather than bass than my left headphone because my left hemisphere is the side that recognizes language. However, my left headphone will be more tuned toward bass, but less tuned towards vocals. For the average Joe, the information will reach the brain no matter what because the corpus callosum is constantly activated and the two hemispheres continually interchange information.

In reality, some headphone companies don’t label their headphones left and right because the company presumes the consumer would wear the headphones in a way that provides the most comfort. The actual writing of left and right is only for ear bud headphones, and is not really important for people who don’t have a severed corpus callosum. Personally, I wear headphones according to comfort; it just so happens that I follow the left and right headphone rule because that is the way ear buds are designed.

Listening to music is a relevant part of our daily lives because it allows individuals to find some personal preference in a massive industry. Your question is quite important to the music industry and I would like to thank you for allowing me to research the subject. You can conclude from this research thatheadphones and ear buds are an effective way to satisfy everyone’s personal taste; however, note that listening to music doesn’t require you to analyze your headphones. Just put them in your ears and turn up the volume.


Yours truly,

Matt Hayes












Works Cited:
"Apple - Sound and Hearing." Apple. Apple, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. .
Myers, David G.. Psychology . 8th ed. New York: Worth Publishers, 2007. Print.
Woodford, Chris. "How headphones work: A simple introduction from Explain that Stuff!."
Explain that stuff! Science and technology made simple. Cambridge Soundworks, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. .