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Old 05-19-2018, 03:45 PM   #39
clepsydrae
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Much as with the dress color thing, my guess is that playback is to blame for this, rather than perceptual differences (which are nonetheless occasionally profound). Everyone should report what kind of speakers they are hearing this through when they report what they hear. (And maybe streaming compression rates are relevant too, dunno. Edit: no doubt youtube at slow rates is probably contributing.)

To me, the only sane perception was "Laurel" until I heard a reproduction of it over a (particularly bad) laptop speaker. I'd guess smart phones are the same.

Over tinny speakers the distorted high frequency stuff pokes out and you get the "y", i.e. the vowels change from "au" and short "e" to "a" and long "e". The beginning of "Yanny" sounds as if begging with an unvocalized glottal stop, which i think helps explain how "Y" and "L" can be mistaken. This dovetails with those that can manipulate it via EQ to hear Yanny.

Does anyone listening on full-range speakers to the original (i.e. not compressed and re-compressed and re-compressed and re-uploaded) version (play it here) hear Yanny?

(Apparently the truly original original pre-viral version is here)
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