Covering up the ears is an unlikely approach to evaluating sound. Yet that is what conventional analysis techniques in acoustic technology actually amount to. This is because recordings made with conventional measurement microphones are not appropriate to aurally-equivalent evaluation of sound situations, since essential acoustic information, such as the spatial constellation of sound sources and the selectivity of aural perception, cannot be captured. Yet it is actually the three-dimensional localization of sound sources and the way acoustic signals are processed by the human auditory apparatus, which are vital, factors in how sound is perceived.

Humans are able to localize a sound source spatially. Human hearing completes this localization automatically, based on the delay and level differences of the acoustic signal at either ear. This is because the outer ear produces directionally dependent filtering of the acoustic signal. The filter effect is based on the modification of sound wave propagation through attenuation, diffraction, reflection and resonance. In this process, the geometrical (anatomical) characteristics of the head and shoulders, along with the ear pinna, play a decisive role. The ability of human hearing to select individual sound sources when exposed to a noise background is also based on the ability to localize. Using an arrangement of two measurement microphones as "ear" cannot simulate binaural hearing. Aurally accurate, true-to-the-original recordings are only possible by taking account of the acoustic filtering properties of the head and ears.

The characteristics of human hearing are very different from those of conventional sound sensors. Signal processing in the human ear, involving identification of amplitude distribution, spectral composition and time structure, is extremely complex. The listener perceives a comprehensive auditory impression of an acoustic event. At the same time, as listeners, our acoustic memories are very short. The Artificial Head measuring technology allows aurally accurate recording of acoustic signals, together with storage of acoustic events. Playback of Artificial Head recordings creates the same auditory impression as if the listener had been able to experience, directly, the original sound event.