If wheezing and crackling noises while breathing are sounds coming from the bronchi in the lungs why do they sound like they’re right at the top of the throat?

Question

I have a respiratory infection right now and it’s so loud, but how come if the obstruction is so low in the airways why is it audible so well? I would have thought it’d be muffled on the way but it just sounds like the obstruction is right at the larynx or in the vocal cords themselves if it makes any sense.

In: 7

Answer 1

Take a long tube, stick one end by your ear and the other end by a sound source. You’re going to hear the sound emanating from the tube, and if you didn’t know you had a tube next to your ear, you’d think the sound was made by something right next to your ear. In other words, the sound travels up through your “pipes” and that’s where it seems to be coming from.