Yanny or Laurel

[Mojo]

Which one do you hear? Having found what is cited to be the original source (https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/laurel) I can still only hear "Yanny!"

 

[AlterEgo]

Laurel.

 

[Geezertronic]

Yanny

 

[nlogax]

Yanny for the first 30 seconds, now I can only hear Laurel.

 

[Cowley]

Yurla first time and Laurel thereafter.

 

[hexagon789]

Yanny - I must have young ears!

 

[RailAleFan]

If you can hear both, try telling yourself which version you're going to hear next immediately before it plays...

 

[Barn]

I think "Yanny" is the one you ideally want to be hearing, as it suggests your high-frequency response is good.

Bizarrely, I was consistently getting Yanny yesterday but am getting Laurel today! I do have a head cold, but I hope my ears haven't aged overnight.

 

[bearhugger]

I hear Laurel, and someone gas just said the word Yanny on Bargain Hunt so I can tell the difference. Incidently, I've had a hearing impairment which means I struggled to hear the higher frequencies since childhood.

 

[Groningen]

Please; it all turns about the level of frequency of the noise that is used.

 

[Class172]

There are couple of videos showing how modulating the pitch of the sound affects what can be heard.

 

[Strat-tastic]

I love this; it's great fun. I heard it on the radio on Wed, first hearing laurel. Then next time, yanny. Later on I listened again on iPlayer and got a mixture of the two. On one play through I heard: Yanny.... Laurel

 

[Mojo]

There are couple of videos showing how modulating the pitch of the sound affects what can be heard.

Of that, the only one that I can make out "Laurel" in is the Faster +95%, and even on that I have to really listen to it, often when I hear it, it sounds like it begins with the letter 'Y,' like "Yourel."

The rest sound like "Yanny" to me, except the Slower -45% and Slower -50% which sound like "Yelly."

 

[61653 HTAFC]

No matter how many times I hear it, I can only hear Yanny and can't quite work out how people are hearing Laurel (but then, I don't have their ears or brain). I've even actively "tried" to hear Laurel but it isn't happening for me!

I've heard loads of people say they heard Yanny at first but then started to hear Laurel more and more. I think there's an element of the brain correcting itself on repeated listening too: Laurel is a more familiar word than Yanny, for example.

This weird little viral story has been dubbed "the dress" of 2018 of course, though I'm not sure that it works in quite the same way because the two things you're supposed to hear have to be revealed before the clip is played. With the dress, one could simply be asked "what colour is this dress?" rather than "is this dress black and gold, or blue and pink?"*. Every example of "Laurel or Yanny" I've seen has given the options before you hear the sound.

*= I don't actually recall what the two options were with the dress, by the way!

EDIT: Having just followed the link in the OP to the source material, I've now heard "Laurel" for the first time despite expecting to hear Yanny because that's what I'd heard every time up to now.

I think psychology plays almost as much a part in this as frequency/pitch/tempo. Either that or I'm calling shenanigans somewhere!

 

[Mojo]

Here's an interesting thing. I have the radio on in the background (it is a separate DAB radio with its own speaker and not part of my computer). When I have the radio on I hear "Laurel" yet when the radio is off I hear "Yanny."

 

[gordonthemoron]

hardy

 

[Bromley boy]

Laurel.

I can just about make out yanny on the slowed down version posted later.

God knows what that says about my hearing.

 

[Mag_seven]

"Yanny and Hardy" just doesn't have the same ring about it does it?

 

[Merseysider]

I hear ‘yarry’

 

[E_Reeves]

I can't work out how people are hearing Laurel! They sound nothing alike! I'm so confused...

 

[hexagon789]

I can't work out how people are hearing Laurel! They sound nothing alike! I'm so confused...

It's to with pitch I believe

 

[507021]

Laurel.

 

[DarloRich]

yaley or yarry

 

[pdq]

Laurel for me. When I put my finger over the speaker on my phone I kind of got yanny, but only because I was listening for it.
On the slowed down version, I got something like yarry.
Tried on my decent Bluetooth speaker as well and at different volumes and still only laurel for me.

 

[Halish Railway]

Yanny. There’s a good ASAP science video on this:

 

[61653 HTAFC]

"Yanny and Hardy" just doesn't have the same ring about it does it?

Stan Yanny would be a very silly name...

 

[Harbornite]

Laurel

 

[najaB]

If I play with my equaliser settings I can switch it between the two.

 

[Tam]

I think "Yanny" is the one you ideally want to be hearing, as it suggests your high-frequency response is good.

You ideally want to be hearing what is actually being said, which is 'Laurel' (confirmed in one of the videos above), which is what I hear.

 

[GusB]

I've just listened to the original clip on my PC, and I can hear both now - the first time I heard it was on the radio, and it was clearly "Yanni" that I was hearing. That evening, the lass behind the bar in my local was trying to get everyone to work out what was being said, and it sounded more like "Yelli" on her phone.