Monaural minimum‐audible‐field (MAF) measurements were taken for five subjects at seven angles of source elevation, φ  (−60°?φ?+60°), in the lateral vertical plane containing the interaural axis. These measurements were made by automated ’’method of limits’’ threshold determinations, using narrow‐band random noise (center frequencies from 4 to 16 kHz), emitted from a special ’’point’’ source. A method was devised for extracting from the MAF data, functions which display the elevation‐dependent changes in sensitivity, primarily caused by the pinna. Most of these derived functions contain a narrow response dip, whose minimum increases in frequency from ∠6.5 kHz monotonically to ∠14 kHz, with increasing source elevation. For corresponding elevations there are many intersubject similarities in these derived response functions and also strong agreement with known data regarding the pinna’s acoustic response. The percept of source elevation is hypothesized to be based upon the detection of the relative absence of specific high‐frequency spectral‐ energy content related to minima in the pinna’s response functions.