Because it can use the full set of information of the audio - people with hearing difficulties cannot. Also interesting, people with perfectly functional hearing, but whom have "software" bugs (i.e. I find it extremely hard to process voices with significant background nose) can also benefit :)

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spauldo 16 hours ago | parent [-]

I have that issue as well - I can hear faint noises OK but if there's background noise I can't understand what people say. But I'm pretty sure there's a physical issue at the root of it in my case. The problem showed up after several practice sessions with a band whose guitarist insisted on always playing at full volume.

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gregoryl 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'd love your thoughts on why it might be hardware. I reason that my hearing is generally fine - there's no issue picking apart loud complex music (I love breakcore!).

But play two songs at the same time, or try talking to me with significant background noise, and I seem to be distinctly impaired vs. most others.

If I concentrate, I can sometimes work through it.

My uninformed model is a pipeline of sorts, and some sort of pre-processing isn't turned on. So the stuff after it has a much harder job.

	▲	spauldo 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I don't have much beyond what I said. It happened to me after repeated exposure to dangerously loud sounds in a small room. I can hear faint sounds, but I have trouble with strong accents and I can't understand words if there's a lot of background noise. I noticed it shortly after I left that band, and I left because the last practice was so loud it felt like a drill boring into my ears. I don't think I have any harder time appreciating complex music than I did before, but I'm more of a 60s-70s rock kinda guy and a former bass player, so I tend to focus more on the low end. Bass tends to be less complex because you can't fit as much signal into the waveform without getting unpleasant muddling. And of course, just because we have similar symptoms doesn't mean the underlying causes are the same. My grandfather was hard of hearing so for all I know it's genetic and the timing was a coincidence. Who knows?

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dylan604 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> I have that issue as well

You say issue, I say feature. It's a great way to just ignore boring babbling at parties or other social engagements where you're just not that engaged. Sort of like selective hearing in relationships, but used on a wider audience

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enneff 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don’t mean to speak for OP, but it strikes me as rude to make light of someone’s disability in this way. I’d guess it has caused them a lot of frustration.

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dylan604 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Your assumption leads you to believe that I do not also suffer from the same issue. Ever since I was in a t-bone accident and the side airbag went off right next to my head, I have a definite issue hearing voices in crowded and noisy rooms with poor sound insulation. Some rooms are much worse than others.

So when I say I call it a feature, it's something I actually deal with unlike your uncharitable assumption.

	▲	jhy 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Sometimes, late at night when I'm trying to sleep, and I hear the grumble of a Harley, or my neighbors staggering to their door, I wonder: why do we not have earflaps, like we do eyelids?

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spauldo 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's not so great when I'm standing right next to my technician in a pumphouse and I can't understand what he's trying to say to me.