monaural, a.
(mɒnˈɔːrəl)
[f. mono- + aural.]
1. Of or pertaining to the use of one ear only.
| 1888 Pop. Sci. Monthly XXXIII. 87 Direction cannot be appreciated by monaural observation. 1935 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. XXV. 270 Differences in the time of arrival of sounds from a single source at the two ears, or differences in intensity,..are far smaller than the monaural or binaural thresholds for such time or intensity differences. 1955 Sci. News Let. 24 Sept. 204/3 Splitting sounds so that one ear hears it first is known as ‘monaural delay’. Its use by the Air Force and airlines promises better and clearer communications in the air. 1972 L. A. Jeffress in J. V. Tobias Found. Mod. Auditory Theory II. ix. 360 The case where the noise is binaural and in phase at the ears and the signal is monaural..is an interesting one. |
2. = monophonic a. 2.
| 1931 Jrnl. Acoustical Soc. Amer. Apr. 483 The fundamental difficulty is that we are at present restricted to monaural recording. 1948 Electronics Aug. 88/2 A person listening to sound through a binaural system has the illusion that the sound originates in the room rather than in the [head]phones. The effect is striking to anyone used to hearing monaural sound from a headset. 1951 Wireless World Mar. 85/1 Current radio broadcast and recording techniques are almost exclusively monaural, using a single microphone and transmission channel. 1959 Sci. News LIII. 57 A discerning listener could never be deceived into believing that even the best monaural reproduction was an original performance. 1964 P. J. Guy Disc Recording x. 148 Two loudspeakers are better than one, even for monaural reproduction. 1968 Times 29 Nov. p. iv/7 In July, 1967, E.M.I. ceased to produce new classical recordings in the monaural form. 1970 [see monophonic a. 2]. 1971 M. McCarthy Birds of America 212 Their gramophone and scratched monaural-78 records. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XVII. 53/2 Stereophonic systems..produce a far greater sense of realism than single-channel (or monaural) systems. |