I was impressed...

Holophonic

Being of a certain age it is rare that I am impressed by anything anymore. Computers and electronic equipment can be impressive but usually only if they are of a certain brand. But today I must say that I was impressed.

I was e-mailed a link to a page that played a sound file. You have to listen to it using headphones but what you can hear is just someone shaking a box of matches. The sound travels around your head but then up and down behind you. You really have to hear it to believe it. I was amazed, unlike a certain someone that I sent the link to.

This type of effect has been tried before. When Pro-Logic was the most popular surround-sound processor you could buy headphones that had 2 speakers for each ear. Of course they weren’t the in-ear ones but the ones that covered the entire ear. A smaller speaker was placed towards the back of the head to try to simulate the effect. I don’t know if they worked well or not. They obviously never caught on.