Do the external ears really help?

Some breeds have fairly small ears, some have fairly large ones, but all cats, as already noted, have excellent hearing. Do the external ears really help that much, or is their sensitive hearing all a matter of internal sensors?

As with human ears, cats’ external ears play a large role in hearing—in fact, a larger role than human ears, since cats are able to turn their ears more than humans can. Humans who have had their external ears removed do not go deaf, but their hearing does suffer, and this is true for cats as well. The external ears are extremely useful “funnels” for sound.