Upgrade your hearing with this easy hack!
What this covers
Buy the book, Of Sound Mind, here: US - https://amzn.to/3BlulVc AUS - https://amzn.to/3ZAVkGk UK - https://amzn.to/4dq6NvJ CA - https://amzn.to/3N3kplU
Join my Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/passionforsound Get your Passion for Sound merchandise: https://passion-for-sound.myspreadshop.com.au/
A discussion of how you can improve your ability to critically listen to music, hear better in noisy environments and improve your hearing as you age.
My top recommended HEADPHONES (prices in USD) HarmonicDyne Athena - $179 - https://bit.ly/3QvQdlq Moondrop Para - $299 - https://bit.ly/3QvQdlq Sivga SV023 - $449 - https://amzn.to/3UKXsZ5 Meze 109 Pro - $799 - https://amzn.to/3y6l6qi Sony MDR-Z1R - $1,800 - https://amzn.to/4dy4szZ ZMF Atrium - $2,499 - https://www.zmfheadphones.com/ Meze Elite - $4,000 - https://bit.ly/3UMIDWb Focal Utopia (2022) - $4,999 - https://amzn.to/44xEHvx
My top recommended IEMS (prices in USD) KZ ESX - $30 - https://amzn.to/4bpMyxC Tangzu FUDU - $89 - https://amzn.to/3UvOrlk Simgot EM6L - $129 - https://amzn.to/4a3SLy1 Meze Audio Alba - $159 - https://bit.ly/AlbaIEM Thieaudio Elixir - $209 - https://amzn.to/3ULd9zr 7Hz Timeless - $220 - https://amzn.to/3QslVA8 Yanyin Canon II - $379 - https://bit.ly/YanCanII Xenns Mangird Top - $530 - https://bit.ly/XENNSTopLin Sennheiser IE600 - $700 - https://amzn.to/44AxcUQ Sennheiser IE900 - $849 - https://amzn.to/4b66wxy Westone Mach 70 - $1,400 - https://amzn.to/3ULUK5P
My top recommended TRANSPORTS (prices in USD) WiiM Pro - $168 - https://amzn.to/4bpTDOw SMSL PL200 CD - $669 - https://amzn.to/3Wsd0lJ Eversolo DMP-A6 (Master Edition) - $1,299 - https://amzn.to/44sBMUR Eversolo DMP-A8 - $1,980 - https://amzn.to/3QxRU1B
My top recommended DACS (prices in USD) Topping E30 II - $149 - https://amzn.to/3JQyGkd Topping E50 - $199 - https://amzn.to/3WucWSO SMSL DO200 Mk2 - $469 - https://amzn.to/4a5Di0C Topping D70 Pro OCTO - $599 - https://amzn.to/4a8bubZ Geshelli J2S AK4499EX - $680 - https://bit.ly/J2SAKM Schiit Bifrost 2/64 - $799 - https://www.schiit.com/products/bifrost-1 Geshelli Dayzee - from $1,300 - https://bit.ly/GLDayzee Gustard R26 - $1,650 - https://amzn.to/3QyZ0mB Schiit Yggdrasil - $2,299 - https://www.schiit.com/products/yggdrasil Chord TT2 - $5,295 - https://chordelectronics.co.uk/product/hugott2
My top recommended HEADPHONE AMPS (prices in USD) Schiit Magni - $119 - https://www.schiit.com/products/magni-unity xDuoo MT-604 - $169 - https://amzn.to/4bpNYrW xDuoo TA-26S - $319 - https://amzn.to/3UJbfzx Geshelli A3 Pro - $499 - https://bit.ly/Archel3SP Aune S17 Pro - $699 - https://amzn.to/4a75v7b Schiit Mjolnir - $1199 - https://www.schiit.com/products/mjolnir-3 Burson Audio Voyager - $5,300+ - https://bit.ly/4a8Mwcq
My top recommended DONGLE DACS (prices in USD) Moondrop Dawn Pro - $50 - https://amzn.to/3y2dd57 Simgot DEW4X - $80 - https://amzn.to/4b68rlK Questyle M15i - $349 - https://amzn.to/4doMSyp
My top recommended WIRELESS 'PHONES (prices in USD) Soundpeats Air3 Deluxe - $40 - https://amzn.to/3UIXQr4 Soundpeats Air4 Pro - $79 - https://amzn.to/3Wyj4tj Edifier Neobuds Pro 2 - $130 - https://amzn.to/3WwMpEf Sennheiser Momentum 4 - $379.95 - https://amzn.to/3WrEqZ0 HiFiMan Svanar Wireless - $499 - https://amzn.to/4amOhmx
Join the Passion for Sound community on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/passionforsound or here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC93TsVvp47ZNKKywT0l2BlA/join
SUPPORT THE CHANNEL Join my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/passionforsound Buy some merchandise: https://shop.spreadshirt.com.au/passion-for-sound/ Or make a one-off donations: paypal.me/lachfen
Like the music in this video? You can get it here: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/ofkioc/
00:00 Introduction 00:28 A bit about sound 02:41 Auditory brain science 11:04 Hearing benefits
#audiophile #audiology #hearing
Source description (no synthesized summary yet).
Playing a musical instrument regularly—even if you're not skilled—rewires your auditory cortex and dramatically improves listening ability, noise discrimination, and auditory memory in ways that passive listening or critical listening alone cannot achieve.
- The brain has more downstream connections from auditory cortex back to sensory organs than upstream pathways, allowing learned focus and selectivity
- Musicians develop enlarged and more detailed sensory maps in the brain through active engagement with timing, pitch, and sound modulation
- Real-world benefits include better conversation comprehension in noisy environments and improved auditory distraction filtering—outcomes that emerge from instrumental practice, not passive listening
This asset isn't compiled yet
You're seeing its claims, ranked. Compile it to build the argument threads, weight them, and check each claim against your library — the full view.
The auditory system is not a unidirectional pathway but a bidirectional system with more feedback pathways from the brain to sensory organs than feedforward pathways.
“they're not the oneway system that most of us think they are... there's actually a lot of return Pathways coming from the brain back out into the auditory system”
The auditory system contains more downstream neural pathways from the brain back to sensory organs than upstream pathways from the ear to the brain.
“Studies have revealed that there's actually a lot of return Pathways coming from the brain back out into the auditory system they're less linear than the Upstream Pathways and there's actually more of these Downstream Pathways than Upstream Pathways that's right the brain has more connections out to the auditory system than it receives coming in”
Downstream auditory pathways from the brain enable selective focus on sounds of interest while excluding noise.
“Learning these outgoing connections from the brain help our auditory system to be selective about what we focus on and hear to isolate sounds and focus on sounds of Interest while excluding all of the noise basically when we hear a sound our brain gets a basic understanding of what that sound is and then activates those outgoing auditory Pathways and our other senses as well such as sight to further scrutinize the sounds that matter as necessary”
Languages such as Hindi use prevoiced consonants where voice activation begins before the consonant, creating distinctions that English speakers cannot initially perceive without learning.
“in some languages that vocalization is a bit more complex and given that it's just a fraction of a second required to make it sound like T or duh you start to realize how accurate the auditory system has to be but also how adaptable you see if you only speak a language like English you won't be able to differentiate certain sounds in a language like Hindi and that's because Hindi contains what are called pre voiced consonants where the sound of the voice activates before the consonant arrives”
The brain develops sensory maps—organized neural structures allocated to specific sensory inputs—and these maps enlarge and become more detailed with increased use of those senses.
“science has shown that our brains develop what are called sensory Maps within its structure basically it allocates and organizes certain neurons in the brain to different and specific specific sensory inputs these could be related to touch taste smell sight or hearing and what's more the more we use those sensors the more detailed and larger those sensory Maps become”
Auditory discrimination of sounds like prevoiced consonants in Hindi can be learned with practice, even if you don't naturally perceive them as an English speaker.
“you won't be able to differentiate them right now however you can learn to with practice”
Playing a musical instrument will not negate the impact of hearing loss; ear protection and background noise management remain necessary.
“I should be clear here playing a musical instrument is not not going to negate the impact of hearing loss we still need to protect our ears and on top of that a certain level of background noise is impossible for anybody to overcome”
The auditory system shows greater temporal accuracy than the visual system: vision detects flickers only up to 60 Hz with a reaction time of 150–200 microseconds, while the auditory system detects interaural time differences down to 10 microseconds.
“our eyes are unable to detect flickers that are any faster than 60 hertz in microseconds that's a sensitivity of about 16,700 micros our visual systems ability to react to a new visual stimulus like an object appearing in our field of view is around about 150 to 200 micros our auditory system is able to detect differences in the arrival of sound waves at our ears down to a difference of just 10 micros between the Left and the right or vice versa”
Playing a musical instrument—as opposed to listening to music—requires and develops attention to subtle details such as timing, pitch nuances, and adjustments in sound production.
“specifically what it means to be a musician is to actively play an instrument of some sort... when you're playing the musical instrument as opposed to just listening to music your brain is asked to pay attention to subtle details such as the timing of the music the nuances of the pitch that you play or you sing and the adjustments you might choose to make”
Downstream auditory pathways are more abundant in highly evolved creatures like humans than in basic organisms, contributing to mental flexibility and learning ability.
“it's something that's evident in more highly evolved creatures like humans than in more basic organisms and it's a big part of how we've developed mental flexibility and the ability to learn”
No amount of critical listening practice alone will improve hearing as effectively as playing a musical instrument.
“now before you stop the video and assume that I'm just going to tell you to practice listening critically it's important to know that no amount of critical listening practice will achieve what I'm about to share with you”
Musicians develop improved auditory memory, enabling better conversation comprehension in difficult listening situations.
“on top of that your auditory memory will also improve which is going to make it easier to piece together a conversation in difficult situations”
Musicians develop improved ability to ignore auditory distractions, benefiting both conversation comprehension and focused listening to specific sounds in recordings.
“You'll also get better at ignoring auditory distractions which is great for both listening to conversations but also for focusing on a specific sound or instrument in your favorite recordings”
Playing a musical instrument improves overall auditory system function, with major benefits in real-world life beyond music listening.
“perhaps even better than that is it's going to improve your auditory system overall and that's got major benefits in Real World Life”
Musicians can turn down background noise more effectively and isolate sounds they want to focus on, performing better than non-musicians in noisy environments.
“well not so much for musicians and remember that's just anybody that plays a musical instrument regularly as a musician your brain is able to turn down the noise more effectively and isolate the sounds that you want to pay attention to”
Playing a musical instrument progressively expands and refines the auditory cortex as players move from basic sound production to adding emotional nuances and inflections.
“as you progress from feeling like a toddler taking their first steps to eventually being willing to have other people hear you play your brain is expanding and refining your auditory cortex to become far more attuned to subtleties in sound that you never previously knew existed”
A musician's husband notices specific sound qualities that define motorcycle types (not just identifying that it is a motorcycle) due to refined auditory perception from musical training.
“Nina Krauss describes in her book how her musician husband will hear the sound of a motorbike and he's noticing sounds that Define the type of bike that it is not just deciding if it's a motorbike or not”
Playing a musical instrument makes listeners better at hearing music by improving ability to perceive nuances and details previously invisible.
“firstly and obviously given the title of this video playing a musical instrument is going to make you a better listener more able to hear nuances and details in the music that previously were invisible to you”
To become a better listener—for music or conversation—pick up your favorite musical instrument and start playing it regularly.
“if you want to become a better listener either when it comes to listening to music or when it comes to listening to your friends and family then pick up your favorite musical instrument and start playing”
To become a musician, one must play a musical instrument for about 30 minutes a few times per week; skill level and instrument type don't matter, but consistency does.
“all you need to do is start playing a musical instrument and that includes singing specifically what it means to be a musician is to actively play an instrument of some sort for about 30 minutes a few times a week you don't have to be particularly good at it and it doesn't matter what the instrument is”
Playing a musical instrument will improve chances of understanding friends and family in social situations despite age-related hearing decline.
“but just playing a musical instrument will definitely improve your chances of being able to understand your friend your wife your husband next time you catch up for a drink or go out for a meal”
Musicians develop improved ability to identify subtle differences between different recordings or pieces of audio equipment.
“it's also going to make it easier for you to identify the subtle differences between two different recordings or two different pieces of equipment”
Deep interest in a visual domain results in perception of visual details that others don't perceive, analogous to how musicians perceive auditory details.
“you can probably relate to this if I show you a series of images the images that represent things that you have a deep interest in and you spent a lot of time focusing on you will see details that others don't it's no different at all when it comes to our hearing”
The speaker is a better listener than the audience due to science-based differences in auditory capability that can be learned.
“there's a fair chance that I'm a better listener than you that's not me bragging that's just science the best part is that you can become just as good of a listener as me and possibly even better”
Hearing naturally declines with age, particularly in noisy environments where one must isolate conversation from background noise.
“as we all know our hearing declines as we age where that becomes particularly challenging is in noisy environments where you're trying to hold a conversation but you're only catching every third word”
A piano and trumpet playing the same middle C note produce identical fundamental frequency (262 Hz) but sound different because of their distinct timbre from different harmonic profiles.
“when you hear a piano play a middle C note the string vibrates 262 times every second to produce the main sound of that note or what they call the fundamental frequency when you hear a trumpet play that same middle C the main sound or fundamental frequency from the trumpet is also 262 Hertz or 262 vibrations of air per second in other words both instruments are playing exactly the same note with exactly the same frequency but they don't sound the same”
The book 'Of Sound Mind' by Nina Krauss discusses auditory system complexity, malleability, and bidirectional processing in practical terms.
“all of what I'm talking about in this video is discussed in much greater depth and Detail in this book it's called of sound mind and it's by Nina Krauss... what Nina explains in this book is how complex and how malleable our auditory systems are they're actually much larger and more accurate than our visual systems”
Sound is defined by a combination of timbre, pitch, timing, and loudness as factors.
“the information that we need to know about this hack all relates to the aspects of sound such as timbre pitch timing and loudness you see what defines each sound that we hear is a combination of those factors”
Timbre is the differentiation of sounds based on their fundamental frequency combined with additional harmonics created simultaneously.
“timbre is the term used to describe the way that we differentiate different sounds and what makes the timbre of a sound is its fundamental frequency combined with all the additional harmonics that are created at the same time”
The auditory system's timing accuracy may extend to 2–4 microseconds based on additional research, with potential for even finer detection not yet measurable.
“there's further research outside the relevance of this particular topic that would suggest that our auditory system actually has timing accuracy as low as two to four microseconds of accuracy and even further studies still would suggest that our brain can detect differences in timing that go beyond what we can actually even measure at this stage”
Playing a musical instrument is fun and rewarding, offering benefits beyond hearing improvement.
“something else that's valuable is the fun that you'll be able to have playing a musical instrument either alone or ideally with some friends and remember you don't have to be good you just have to do it regularly”
The benefits of improved hearing become increasingly valuable as people age.
“and as we age those benefits become even more valuable”