Pecluliar Effect - What is it?

[Paul F]

Please listen to this clip from 6:40 to 7:00. On my laptop, the clip between those two points does something funny to my ears. What is this and why does it 'affect' my ears? I can actually feel something irritating happening in my ears as the audio switches between clips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N81wxz_yUMY#t=413.8989536

 

[Alex H.]

That's phase cancellation (easily noted by the fact that you can feel it as much as hear it). Somehow, one channel got knocked out of alignment. It's not 180°, as that would cancel out pretty much everything.

I can also feel really aggressive compression, as well as hear it, but the sound that accompanies the feeling is different. In this posted example, as with most examples of phase cancellation, it sounds like the sound field is being unnaturally squeezed to the middle, and like your left and right ears are playing tug-o-war.