Hello,

I found this youtube about it:

Bertus

 

I too have hearing with some age-related high frequency loss. I've just experimented with the BBC sound clip in Audacity. Listening via PC speakers, hi-fi system speakers or headphones, and playing about with up to 30dB boost/cut on the bass and treble controls, all I hear is 'laurel' or 'moral'. No trace of 'yanny' or similar.

 

Further experimenting in Audacity, this time with the pitch shift function, was interesting. With the pitch down by >40% I hear "L.I", down ~15% to 40% I hear "N.I", down 0% to 15% I hear "E.I". Go away and come back to Audacity a bit later, with the pitch setting still down 15% I hear "laurel" !!
So it seems there is a conditioned response at play here.

 

Interesting.... with the audio at the start of the file in post #21, I hear Laurel whether on monitor or on hi-fi.

That clip seems to give different results to the BBC clip. This makes it pretty hard to do meaningful comparisons.

EDIT: OK, so I found the BBC clip again, and today, whatever I do, all I can perceive is Laurel. Two days ago I definitely clearly heard Yanny on monitor.

Maybe my ears and/or brain are operating differently today compared to 2 days ago.
Two days ago I was tired and had been drinking. Today I am awake and sober.

Just goes to prove that reality is an illusion that occurs due to the lack of alcohol (W C Fields).

Too many variables, too many unknowns and too many uncertainties. I will stop jumping to conclusions. I am happy with the explanations given in the video of post #21

 

Evidently the word actually spoken was intended as Laurel.
Max.

 

EDIT: OK, so I found the BBC clip again, and today, whatever I do, all I can perceive is Laurel. Two days ago I definitely clearly heard Yanny on monitor.

Maybe my ears and/or brain are operating differently today compared to 2 days ago.
Two days ago I was tired and had been drinking. Today I am awake and sober.

That's an interesting observation. We were also tired and drinking after dinner last night and my daughter started pulling up the sound clips. It took a while to find a genuine copy and before we did, I heard both Yanny (although I heard more of a Yarry) and Laurel very clearly depending which clip she played. When we finally got to the "original", I heard Yanny on the very first iteration but then my gin-addled brain "snapped" to hearing Laurel. I actually experienced it as something like those 3D pictures that were so popular a few years ago, where you gaze at it for a while and suddenly the 3D image "pops out" at you. The Yanny was like a noise above the Laurel and once my brain snapped on Laurel, it was very difficult to go back and hear Yanny. Without the gin, I might not have been able to perceive the change as it took place.

It also felt like the higher pitched noise was a female voice and the Laurel was a male voice. Insert your own joke here about tuning out female voices.

 

It seems that in the interest of scientific rigour, we should all drink ourselves stupid and repeat the experiment

 

atferrari talks about a test, and I ask, "WHAT test?"

Hey William, that seems plain nitpicking. Yanny to me, makes no sense and laurel, for me again, is the name given to the Laurus nobilis plant whose aromatic leaves are used as seasoning in stews and the like. Otherwise I would go straight to the association with Hardy (for the life of me, please do not ask me who is who in that couple. Really!!).

Going to Youtube (not even Google) and clicking on the first or second video showing up, took me a couple of seconds. Given that the privacy, safety and eventual happiness of my social environment or myself was not at stake I simply told my experience.

BTW, since my years at the Naval Academy, I dutifully keep track of my units, whether pesos, centavos, euros or girlfriends. It all started when our thermodynamics professor (retired officer), threatened us with arrest in a dungeon if not doing that. True.

Relax and enjoy. You deserve it.

 

My wife has good hearing and she consistently hears "Yanny".
I am hearing impaired and I consistenly hears "Laurel".