Seeing with Sound, Listening with Sight

Over the past weeks I've noticed in scrutiny how people select/buy their car hi-fi largely based on looks alone. How can this be and how can people pre-judge based on appearance? Okay, it could be safe to say that an experienced buyer may be able to guess how a speaker will perform using paper vs. aluminium vs. pp cone midrange or metal vs. silk dome vs. glass tweeters. However upon closer inspection, some of us may have experienced or be suprised how smooth some metal dome tweeters can sound or how smooth sounding good silver cables can be .

Vendors are also smart in manipulating this by pointing out certain products are better than the other because of certain materials or construction being used (half of which are copycats and do not work as intended), which could be true if the person has done his comparisons but in many cases it is pure sales talk. Worst of all if he/she has not even tried or auditioned the product.

Did you know that we see things at 1,086 miles per second and we hear at 1,100 feet per second? Our culture is speeding up because it’s crafted a "seeing is best" mindset. We have television, internet, movies, the list goes on. If the visual world is communication, then is it based on visual alone? It seems to be heading in that direction, doesn't it?

If only we can transform into bats and use our sonar chirps or a dolphin with our sonar clicks, we can understand how to see with sound. In order to hear, truly hear, we must slow down to what seems like a baby crawl in comparison to the speed of light and our sight’s reflection.

Possibly feelings come into play in our selections, differing from male and female. What could be the speed of feeling? Is it faster or slower than light or faster or slower than hearing? And how is it being quantified or tested; measured by feet or by miles? No one really knows, yet can it be measured and if it was you, what would that be?

Feeling is instinctive and touch/smell is a sense. Could feeling be a sense as well? What is different between feeling and hearing? Is there a definition to its difference? Do you sit and watch television with a sense of touch or smell? Have we ever thought of hearing a television program by turning our backs to the telebox? Why not? Why not try it and feel this exact disconnect, this gap, that I'm talking about. Strain your ears to hear. Learn again what it means to hear and what brings sight and sound together?

We see a picture of a perfect 10 women, so beautiful that you want her or if you're a woman, want to be like her. You meet her in the streets one day and hear her voice. It squeaks as if you were running a chalk backwards across a blackboard. You can't wait to run and hide. The disconnect, the gap, was there. But gosh, darn it, she’s a 10, you say. In a split second from sight to sound, the desire to be like her to have her dropped, it wasn't the same.

What would change in your selection if you began really hearing, slowing down to 1,100 feet per second? What would you loose? or rather what would you gain? Would the gain be positive? All thoughts to think about, to mull over in our simple yet complicated little minds.

It should be encouraged to shift a little in your life and begin to give equal value to hearing if you can. To listening to the universal sounds, to what is far below the speed of light. Light that gives you the ability to see. But to begin to see with your ears. A phrase frequently used, "It's not what you say but how you say it". All our senses are on different parts of our rainbow. Don't loose sight of hearing. Practice differently today and tomorrow. Lie in bed and hear the surroundings, the walls. Hear the breeze whenever outdoors. Hear the trees and plants grow. Yes, you can once you learn to hear again. Hear your heart beating and learn how to discern between sight and sound. Close your eyes in the next meeting, what do you hear? What do you not?

It is unfortunate we are not babies, thus it takes a longer time for us to develop our brains to stimulate our listening capabilities. In hi-fi terms, learn how to critical listen. I'm not talking about putting yourself into listening fatigue but practicing how to enjoy music at a different level. Enjoy your sound system but not get engulfed in it. Listen to the music and picture what is behind it... that way we can bridge the listening gap between sight and sound.