Our external ears simply funnel sound into our inner ear, where aural perception takes place. One problem singers face because of this, is that they often don't hear their own voices accurately, as a lot of what they hear is coming through the body directly from the voice, by bone and flesh conduction, and thus is very different from what audiences' hear. The distance from larynx to inner ear is a few inches, much less than the distance sound waves have to travel out of the mouth and bending back to the external ears, and through the ear canal to the inner ear.

Working with a tape recorder will help you realize what others are hearing, though many singers can't stand the sound of their own voice, no matter how good they are.

Aural perception occurs within the cochlea, where rows of tiny hairs are tuned to vibrate at the different frequencies of sound. Sounds travel as groups of soundwaves, and the cochlea identifies which frequencies are occurring and sends a summarised message to the brain of what is being heard. This creates sound colour, so that a trumpet sounds different to a flute, even though they may be playing the same note. The fundamental frequency would be the same, but the pattern of harmonics and the amplitude of those harmonics would vary, thus creating timbre. So a singer can affect a listener in different ways, by the mix of harmonics they create on a note eg bright, or dark, or rich and velvety, or light, or wispy, or thick and heavy etc. This starts to leave the realm of science and becomes an issue of artistry.

The reason that ring affects the listener so powerfully, is that on average the ear canal vibrates at the 3000hz mark, which is the frequency of ring.