They played it on the Entertainment Weekly Radio Morning Show, and I definitely heard Laurel - except that one time when it was being played over one of the host’s cellphone, it did sound more like Yanny.
Love this. Thanks.
To my ears, even when pushing that tool all the way to the “Laurel” end, I’m still hearing Yanny, albeit with a bit of an “ora” sound in there.
I hear Mangrove Throatwarbler
It’s the second coming!
First I heard Laurel then I heard Hardy.
I"m pretty much a ditto of what RavenMan experienced up on post #17: I heard 3 or 4 "Yanny"s and then nothing but “Laurels” since and it isn’t going back. I guess I’m just resting on my laurels.
Yanny
The correct answer is Yanny. (Yammy, whatever.) If you don’t hear that, it is literally because you don’t have very good hearing and cannot hear the higher frequency (and louder) “yanny” sound.
I find it curious I can hear Yanny, as I’m 46, which is a bit old to pick up high frequencies.
I wonder if the folks like me who hear both have a musical background? I am used to picking out separate tracks. And with the coaching of being asked which I was hearing, I picked up both easily, naturally. ??
Although if you read the NYT article, the word spoken is Laurel, from vocabulary.com.
StG
But I’m a 66-year old man with a documented diminished hearing at frequencies over 11kHz and all I can hear is Yanni.
I listened this morning and heard “yanny” distinctly. Couldn’t get anything remotely like “Laurel.” I answered the poll accordingly, but after reading the responses here, I turned the volume to 100% and heard “Laurel.” Now even if I turn the volume down, I hear “Laurel.”
How did this whole thing get started? Was someone listening to an interview with Yanni and heard his name as “Laurel”? Who made the original recording of Yanny/Laurel?
It turns out that an opera singer is speaking the word in question, which is supposed to be laurel.
For me this raises more questions than it answers. My assumption after hearing the word several times was that it is computer generated, which is why I had previously referred to the speaker as an “it”. Now I’m trying to figure out how a human, and a trained opera singer at that, can produce a word that sounds like yammy when he/she is trying to say laurel. It really does boggle the mind.
Do you Yanny weirdos ignore the warning not to jam Qtips in your ears, or what? 
Reminds me of the “what way spins the dancer”-gif. Only there you can actually make a shift in the way she turns in your own head. Weird.
I heard Laurel, clear as day.
I just checked out vocabulary.com and looked up laurel. The first time the yammy / laurel recording came up. I then looked up laurels and the recording was of a male voice pronouncing it normally. I then looked up laurel again and this time it was a normal male voice pronouncing the word laurel normally. I wonder if someone snuck the yammy version in as a joke of some kind, or if most of the words on vocabulary.com have several different speakers.
Interesting. And here it is in context: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/laurel
So, ha!!!. I was right all along!
ETA: Darn you, FlikTheBlue, ninja’d.
I hear Yanny, no question. It could make for an interesting study to compare other things that the opposite groups hear, see etc.
The dress was white and gold too.
This is an auditory illusion, but unlike most illusions, there IS in fact a correct answer. He’s saying “Laurel”, in a deep bass voice, like that which a newscaster might use. The low frequency, a bit like a frog’s croak, can fool your ears into thinking it’s hearing something in a high-pitched scratchy voice, but if you listen intently for the inflection of “Laurel”, you will hear it and you will not be able to hear “Yanny” again. There’s also the fact that Laurel is an actual fucking word, and Yanny isn’t one. Yanni (Ioannis) is a Greek name, but not with a Y at the end, and certainly not pronounced to rhyme with “Manny.”
So, long story short: it’s Laurel, full stop.
Actually, it’s those who hear “laurel” who have less acute hearing.
There may be a correct answer to “What word was recorded?” but there are two correct answers to “Which word do you hear?” 