The ear is far less sensitive to phase than to amplitude of frequency components

Evidence

This is a very small delay but a variation from this to zero determines the direction of sounds at low frequencies. Figure 2.25 shows how this delay varies as a function of angle, where positive delay corresponds to a source at the right of the median plane and negative delay corresponds to a source on the left. Note that there is no difference in the delay between front and back positions at the same angle. This means that we must use different mechanisms and strategies to differentiate between front and back sounds. There is also a frequency limit to the way in which sound direc­ tion can be resolved by the ear in this way. This is due to the fact that the ear appears to use the phase shift in the wave caused by the interaural time difference to resolve the direction; that is, the ear measures the phase shift given by: where the phase difference between the ears in radia ITD Φ  ( ns and the frequency in Hz When this phase shift is greater than  radians (180°) there will be an unre­ solvable ambiguity in the direction because there are two possible angles- one to the left and one to the right-that could cause such a phase shift. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 712 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: The power spectrum is blind to the relative phase of a sound’s components; The human ear is largely insensitive to signal phase; Acoustical interference is non-minimum-phase but less audible than resonances. (+3 more)

Related

• The human ear is largely insensitive to signal phase (similarity 0.97)
• The ear lacks the eye’s directional receptors, relying on canal analysis (similarity 0.93)
• The ear resolves low-frequency direction by measuring phase shift (similarity 0.93)
• Ear offset from the head’s center makes arrival time shift with source azimuth (similarity 0.90)
• Phase-based directional hearing works only below about 743 hertz (similarity 0.89)
• The ear cannot sense a tone’s absolute phase but does sense phase differences. (similarity 0.85)
• The superior olivary complex sharpens phase locking to enable left-right sound localization (similarity 0.84)
• Phase delays beyond 180 degrees make direction judgments ambiguous (similarity 0.83)
• Ears detect direction changes as small as 5 degrees via 50-microsecond delays (similarity 0.83)
• The power spectrum is blind to the relative phase of a sound’s components (similarity 0.83)
• Unlike the eye, the ear has no primary directional sensitivity (similarity 0.83)
• Acoustical interference is non-minimum-phase but less audible than resonances. (similarity 0.83)
• Humans hear spectral content, not waveform shape or phase shifts (similarity 0.82)
• Phase-based sound localization becomes ambiguous beyond 180 degrees phase shift (similarity 0.81)
• Head intensity-shading fails below the frequency where head size reaches one-third wavelength (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• The ear resolves low-frequency direction by measuring phase shift #contradicts (0.85) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 712