I posted this on the other site. Just wanted to include it here as well.
Don,
I did a little research based on your recommendation. I looked up the Fletcher-Munson Loudness Curve. Very interesting stuff!
Based on the Sprectral Analysis that was presented in the "Visualizing Resonance" topic, I decided to use that diagram as a starting point. I penciled in my impression of what I learned from the F-M Loudness Curve on my diagram and showed this "high point" at 30-50 feet from the player on stage. This high point represents the sensitivity of human hearing between 2-5 kHz.
In my digram, Point A is the sound just as it comes out the bell. The fundamental of the sound is the most present here. As the sound decays over distance, all of the frequencies decay equally. However, the human ear perceives frequencies between 2-5 kHz MUCH better than the fundamental.
So, Point B shows that the overtones that exist in a players sound (say between 2-3 kHz) will be heard more prominently by a listener. If a player has a mature sound, with lots of higher frequencies present in the sound, this sound is what will "project" to the audience.
This would clearly explain why a player with a "less complex" sound would be heard clearly in a small radius around the player (mostly the lower frequency fundamental), but since the higher frequencies are "less strong", the sound is not perceived well at a distance. The player with the "complex" sound, can play the fundamental at a softer perceived dynamic in a small radius around the player, and even though this sound decays more quickly than the other player, the energy in the higher overtones gets picked up at a distance.
Comments?
I'd love to hear them, because this is just my impression so far, and I haven't yet down my experiment (had to cancel my lesson today due to last minute birthday preparation for my son's big day tomorrow).