The human auditory system is the hardest link in the communication chain.

Evidence

The most central topic of this book is related to auditory perception. Every communication channel consists of a source, a channel, and a receiver. In our case the ultimate receiver is the human auditory system. This is found to be the most challenging link by far in the communication chain. Transmission channels and many sound sources can be formulated by physical and technical models more easily. Human speech or music as sound sources are also quite involved, since a full understanding of these phenomena requires including cognitive aspects too. The receiver, especially the human auditory system, is complex and intricate, even starting from the peripheral parts. Due to this complexity, the auditory aspects in communication by sound and voice have often been omitted or greatly simplified, especially in engineering-oriented textbooks. This simplification or omission is also due to the fact that formal and instrumental knowledge of auditory functions is only emerging. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 120

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels James Gibson’s and Shannon-Weaver communication models where the receiver end resists formalization; connects to the reader’s noise/silence reading on why perceptual receivers are neglected. — connects to: Audibility is the greatest factor in hearing-loss communication difficulty; Achieving intelligible speech reinforcement in real acoustics is genuinely difficult. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2444; Practical speech communication uses only a small slice of hearing’s full range — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 983
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: why did formal/instrumental knowledge of auditory functions only recently emerge? What technical barriers blocked measurement of the peripheral auditory system?
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 120

Broader Connections

• Audibility is the greatest factor in hearing-loss communication difficulty #exemplifies (0.85)
• Achieving intelligible speech reinforcement in real acoustics is genuinely difficult. #corroborates (0.78) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2444
• Practical speech communication uses only a small slice of hearing’s full range #qualifies (0.75) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 983