Yanny or Laurel, what do you hear?

[Coopersville]

No one remembers the Yanni...

[⇛Marnetmar⇛]

I'm talking out of my ass here, but I'm willing to bet that what you hear depends on the resonant frequency of your head and its harmonics rather than whether or not you can hear high frequencies, since I hear up to about 18k and still hear Laurel. Depending on your head size, perhaps the harmonics of whatever the fundamental resonant frequency of your head is could have a chance of masking the high frequencies in the clip, making you hear "Laurel". 

 

Another possibility could be whether or not you are holding your breath when you listen, since I've noticed that I hear Yanni if I hold my breath, but Laurel if I'm in the process of breathing normally. If that's true for everyone else, what could be happening is that the high frequencies of your breath are *also* masking the high frequencies in the audio clip, once again making you hear "Laurel". If you happen to be in a room that has modes in the high range, that could also possibly cause you to hear Laurel.

 

Edit:

 

A better way of putting "hearing Laurel" would be "Unable to hear Yanni," since the original recording is, in fact, someone saying Laurel.

Edited May 17, 2018 by Marn

[The Nate]

I hear what I want to hear

 

i.e., I hear Yanny when I want to hear Yanny

[MTF Sergeant]

YAREL?

[The Unclassy German]

Yanny, but after listening to it for a second time i heard Laurel

[Taw Tu'lki]

Yanni

[TheUltimateDoomer666]

Today I can hear "laurel", on the same headphones as before.  Derp.

[DeadAstronaut]

"Yaurel" 

[[McD] James]

There's a tool here that lets you slide the frequency to whatever you like. When I make it just low enough, I hear both words simultaneously, which is slightly maddening. 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/16/upshot/audio-clip-yanny-laurel-debate.html