[krustykat]

So I put my hands behind my ears and pushed them forward while I was listening to music, and it significantly affected the sound - more high end, too much in fact!  This got me to wondering, what would have happened if I had been born with big sticky-out ears? Would I not be an audiophile?  Are all high end components be designed for people with small sticky-in ears?  Anybody with big sticky-out ears, please feel free to comment.

[JLM]

I have an audio friend (Randy from Caintuck) that has those ears and he seems to have very good hearing/listening skills. 

The human animal is very adaptable, so we all acclimate to a wide variety of situations/physical attributes.

[Guy 13]

So I put my hands behind my ears and pushed them forward while I was listening to music, and it significantly affected the sound - more high end, too much in fact!  This got me to wondering, what would have happened if I had been born with big sticky-out ears? Would I not be an audiophile?  Are all high end components be designed for people with small sticky-in ears?  Anybody with big sticky-out ears, please feel free to comment.

Hi krustykat,
I don't have prince Charles ears,
my ears I would say are normal size, if there is such a thing.
I did try many times to pull forward my ears with my hands
and to me the music sounds like it's coming out of a bullhorn,
not good at all.

Guy 13

[Bob in St. Louis]

What? I can't hear you.

[Hipper]

This, and just cupping hands behind your ears, affects the sound you hear. I certainly hear more percussion.

I'm interested in what change it does to the frequency response. It not only increases the higher frequencies but seems to give a more enveloping sound.

This subject comes up periodically - here are some links:

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/173-2-channel-audio/1431624-cupping-your-ears-while-listening.html

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/if-you-put-your-two-hands-over-two-ears-while-listening-to-music.753437/

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=108143

[Alan]

I guess you guys don't remember those big strap-on ears. iirc they were called 'Serious Listeners.' Sam Tellig reviewed them in Stereopile maybe mid 80's.

[stereocilia]

As for cupping hands, you can get up to an 8 dB midrange boost. That 2 KHz range is really important for speech intelligibility.

  http://www.pubfacts.com/detail/6860820/The-cupped-hand-as-an-aid-to-hearing.

The pinna does have an important effect on the sound, the research mannequin for acoustic measurement (KEMAR) has various outer ear options.  The folds of the ear are helpful for localizing height, too.  Here is a graph from the Audio Precision website. ( http://www.ap.com/kb/show/238 )