Halocline wrote the following today in another forum thread:
Interestingly, I got the mics back and connected [the mics] to a good preamp, put on some headphones and crumpled a bit of paper and jungled a set of keys in front of each mic. They did sound different. Then I turned the headphones around and some of the difference stayed in the same ear...I guess the lesson of the day was that my ears are not identical.
Which leads me to share how I found out how different my left ear is from my right. Others who did this test confirmed these findings:
To understand how unique the timbre and frequency response of each of our ears are, sit in front of a decent hifi or monitor speaker (the other one being disconnected) while a mono recording of a vocal track is playing back. Now put one finger in one ear for about thirty seconds, then reverse the ear that is plugged. It will be an eye-opener.
Speaking of eyes, an equally highly individual perception and transmission through our sensory system will be found when testing the other of our stereo-sensory organs, the eyes: With one eye closed, look at a well-lit off-white wall for about 10 seconds. Then reverse the eye that is closed/sees the wall. The hue of the white will change quite noticeably.
Invariably the next question will be: which of the ears/eyes hears or sees the "true" sound/color?
My philosophical answer: both- objective reality only exists in our (subjective) perceptions.