This blows my mind...What do you hear?

[ritter6788]

Now I'm really thrown off. I can only hear Laurel and the tone of the voice is even different.

 

[jduong916]

I only hear laurel in every single clip

 

[Rybren]

I have great difficultly hearing higher frequencies, so I hear Laurel. When the sound is isolated to only the upper frequency with no background or other sound, I can hear Yanny.

 

[FredsNJReef]

Laurel 100000%

Although with the slider at the right I can here" yeery" LOLOL

 

[PDR]

My sisters name is Laurel and I still only hear Yanny lol

 

[FredsNJReef]

My sisters name is Laurel and I still only hear Yanny lol

Classic!!

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I hear Yanny on my Onkyo 5.1 surround.

I think there are two things going on here. First, I think the recording is intentionally low quality and ambiguous. While some sources say this was originally a voice recording of the pronunciation of Laurel from Vocabulary.com, very clearly it has been manipulated to be ambiguous. Otherwise, everyone would just hear Laurel.. there wouldn't be such an even split on what people hear. This also means people who are more attuned to higher frequencies (where the "Yanny" supposedly resides) would be more likely to hear Yanny, while those who hear lower frequencies better might be more predisposed to hear Laurel.

I think the second thing happening here is actually much more devious. I think the original poster of the clip engineered it so that the clip sounds very specifically like "Laurel" on some devices, while sounding very specifically like "Yanny" on others. This could be accomplished through detailed testing on specific popular phone brands. Different smartphones have different external speakers and different audio optimization software. Since a large number of people consume social media from smart phones, it's possible that the creator of this audio file intentionally made the file sound like Yanny on one popular device (iPhones, for instance). At the same time, the file could be designed to sound like Laurel on another popular make of smartphone (a Samsung for instance). This would ensure an almost even split of people who hear Yanny as opposed to Laurel if the sound engineer picked two sufficiently popular devices.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Do you hear Nemo or Marlin?

 

[tautog83]

Whoever has a parrot play this for them for a week straight and see if he says Yanny lol

 

[ritter6788]

Whoever has a parrot play this for them for a week straight and see if he says Yanny lol

Now that's a good idea!

 

[Florida Sunshine]

Being the owner of a Macaw, I do not suggest that. OMG I am just picturing my bird saying Yanny all day long, UGH!

 

[revhtree]

All I hear is Laurel.

 

[NY_Caveman]

iPhone 7 Plus

Laurel

It is so overprocessed it sometimes sounds like aural or Laura.

 

[samnaz]

I hear both. why isn't that an option?

 

[ritter6788]

I hear both. why isn't that an option?

It is!

 

[redfishbluefish]

I've heard it both ways.....and here's my theory.

I think it depends on the electronics/speakers you're hearing in on. On my Chromebook, I only hear Laurel. But when I heard it on my cheap radio in my shop, the only thing I heard was Yanny. And, as Edith Ann would say, "And that's the truth...pffffffft."

 

[ritter6788]

I've heard it both ways.....and here's my theory.

I think it depends on the electronics/speakers you're hearing in on. On my Chromebook, I only hear Laurel. But when I heard it on my cheap radio in my shop, the only thing I heard was Yanny. And, as Edith Ann would say, "And that's the truth...pffffffft."

Once I heard Laurel I can’t get yanny back no matter what device I listen on. Still throws me off even after seeing the explanation.

 

[ReeferBean]

Yanny for me.

 

[Cherub]

Have you heard this one? This one you can actually make yourself hear what you want. Brainstorm? Green needle? both?

 

[NY_Caveman]

Have you heard this one? This one you can actually make yourself hear what you want. Brainstorm? Green needle? both?

That is awesome. I could make it say “brain needle” or “green storm.“