How high can you hear?

[ericl]

Check out this website, it contains audio samples from 10-25khz. I can't hear anything past 16khz. Pretty cool.

http://www.ochenk.com/entry.php?id=63

[audio_dude]

I can hear to about 19khz

awesome site

[emorphien]

I can hear 19 but its not terribly loud. Could be rolloff on the speakers, amp, sound card or who knows what else. I'm not going to plug in my good headphones just to find out.

[audio_dude]

i think the average person hears about 18htz, sometimes 19...probably not the roll-off on speakers...(well, that my opinion)

[superpanavision70mm]

I heard it up to about 18 and a fraction of 19.

[PAT.P]

Why does it show broken clip picture from 21 to 25?I was up to 20khz with no problem than broken clip .:confused5:

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I played this through my hometheater speaker system and I could plainly hear 19khz and had pressure to my ears up to 21khz. Man did this give me a headache, time for beer!

[kexodusc]

wholly crap - I can hear up to 21KHz...
when I get my hearing tested, it's lower, somewhere around 18 KHz or something where I lose sensitivity.

[superpanavision70mm]

I guess I should try it out through my system instead of my laptop speakers.

[Feanor]

Check out this website, it contains audio samples from 10-25khz. I can't hear anything past 16khz. Pretty cool.

http://www.ochenk.com/entry.php?id=63

I used the Radio Shack SPL meter corrected tones on the Rives test CD @ 80dB. I could clearly hear a 10kHz tone but not the 12kHz or higher tones. Of course, I'm pretty old at 61 years. I still enjoy the music though.

However it does open the question of whether my opinions of high-frequency performance -- noise, grit, grain, etc. -- would be worth anything. In any case, I never offer any without a disclaimer. ;)

[superpanavision70mm]

Ok, so I decided to re-listen through my system and I was still hearing some sort of sound in the 20+ category, but it wasn't like a high pitch frequency like with the others, it was more of a 'noise' type thing. Anyone else know that?

[robin_v]

I could just about hear 23kHz but that's probably because of the frequency response of the cans I have on the PC.
I do have unusually high frequency sensitivity and can hear bats, for instance.

Did anyone else experience a kind of tinnitus after listening to those tones?

[slbenz]

I surprised myself to be able to hear to 22kHz. I guess not listening to my stereo/home theater system too loudly helped over the years.

Slbenz

[emack27]

Wow! Did you know that women generally have a higher sensitivity to higher frequency ranges than men? And that the dynamic range of human hearing is 120dB!

[Mr_Speedy]

Wow! Did you know that women generally have a higher sensitivity to higher frequency ranges than men?

Men have probably learned to filter out high pitch nagging that comes from women :biggrin5:

[jlcct]

Thank You,

I liked that a lot.

Sincerely,
Jeff's Dog

[r m]

I could hear 22 but not 23.

Thanks for the great link.

[Grandpaw]

I guess my hearing is shot..... 12Hz was it!!!! What did you just say? Jeff

[givendale]

I hear up to 23,000 Hz an I have had tinitus for about the last 15 years. It makes me wonder what frequency the souonds in my ears are.

I did have the PC speakers turned all the way up though but I suppose if you can hear it,you can hear it. :ihih:

[superpanavision70mm]

Ok, so here is a perfect place to ask this question....

Can anyone else hear TV's? Ok, let me somehow rephrase the question....

Occassionally in my life I have accidentally left my TV monitor on or other monitors on and I can immediately tell when I enter into a house that there is a monitor on...without the monitor even making sound...no static, no fuzz, just a really high pitch that NO ONE else seems to be able to hear. I know this because I have asked others, "can't you hear that really high pitch?" Everyone thinks that I am crazy.....anyone else have this ability?

To test it out....turn ON your TV, but without a signal going to it.....so that it's just ON, without any static...for example if you have your DVD player shut off and the TV is not receiving an image...now go out of that room and a few rooms away.....are you able to tell if the TV is on without knowing?

[nightflier]

Something else to think about: just because we aren't hearing things consciously after a certain level, does not mean we are not perceiving it. Moreover, there is the possibility that sound at lower frequencies "enhances" sounds at higher frequencies that we cannot consciously hear. This is why using test tones as opposed to actual music will yield different results.

By the way, using good headphones allowed me to hear higher frequencies than through my speakers, probably because of ambient noise. I also had to go back and read the specs on some of these headphones because the cheapy ones didn't go higher than 16-18 KHz.

[Mark_IDT]

I can hear tv tubes when there turned on. Of course this only happens when there is no other sound present and that usually means the tv is on an input channel with no signal. I can remember coming home when I was younger and as soon as I walked in I could hear an annoying very faint sound. When I walked up stairs I found the tv on with no picture and when I shut it off the sound went away. Thats when I realized I could hear tv tubes. We can't be the only ones but we may be among the few.
I must say among all my friends I have the pickiest ears it seems. Alot of them play music also so they will ask me how they sounded after a set and I never say great. It usually is too loud for the size room there in but try telling them that. One of them always says they can't hear there stack and need to hear themselves playing and thus turns his amp way up till the clip light is on almost solid. I just shake my head and walk away. Another example is one of my friends makes cds from his collection which is all mp3 files on his computer. He has the cd's but listens to all them from his computer anyway so he just riped them all into mp3's. Well when he makes a copy for someone he justs pulls up the mp3 files and makes a music cd. Well this turns them back into wav files and makes the highs sound like one ringing tone. It becomes very apparent on my paradigm's and I've gotten my other friends to hear the difference on my stereo but in a car the same friends can't tell the difference. I can pick out one of his cd's immediatly on any stereo and it bothers my ears so much I have to turn it off or leave the room if someone insists it keeps playing.

[thekid]

Ericl-Thanks for the link! I'll give it a shot once the Hendrixx blaring from daughters room quiets down.

During a physical years ago I went off the charts on the high end but from a musical prospective you have to question the usefulness at a certain point.

Because I can hear a mosquito buzz-do I really need to??? Its useful if I were a frog but not when listening to Mozart and others .... (Flight of the Bumble Bee the one exception..... :)

[Dusty Chalk]

I think it'd be more interesting if they played full-frequency content of some sort, and played with the filter cutoff. It is my belief that even if we can't actually hear those frequencies directly, it still will effect the overall sound in a way that we can hear.

I used to be able to hear TVs, but now not so much.

[Kaboom]

yes, i can hear TVs, and it drives me crazy. that's just one good reason to buy flat-screens from now on...

[hermanv]

I'm curious that the digital protocol in use works past 22KHz. As far as I know Mpeg does not neither does SPDIF, and I'm not that sure about the sound card. Somewhere in the chain is a digital to analog converter, it has a clock, signals higher than 1/2 the clock frequency are not possible.

At 59 I can hear to about 14K at low levels, higher frequencies at louder levels.

My wife could easily hear bats and ultrasonic burglar alarms (I think they run 30KHz) In fact there were stores she couldn't enter because of the loud irritating whistle from these alarms.

CRT TV sets (not HDTV) run the horizontal scan at 15,734 Hz most young people can hear them fine.

[nightflier]

Hermanv brought up a good point. My sound card can't play anything above 20KHz., not that my hearing can hear that high anyhow...

Just out of curiosity, what about the low end of the spectrum? I wonder how deep people can hear at 20Hz?, 16Hz? 12Hz? Does anyone have any test tones at these frequencies?

[hermanv]

About 4 years ago Fi or maybe Audio posted a list of low frequency content of rock music recordings. There were probably 25 records listed, the lowest I recall was 4Hz! Many had 8,10, 12 or 16Hz tones from synthesizers.

I think most people switch from hearing a tone to hearing a series of beats and feeling a tone near 20Hz. Its not like the high frequencies, where you just can't hear them anymore, it's that the continuous tone appears to seperate into repetitive pulses.

[Dusty Chalk]

Yeah, it's a little harder with the low end of the spectrum, because although you may stop hearing it, you won't stop feeling it, and you might associate feeling it with hearing it. Especially if you were recently hearing it (as in, during a downward frequency sweep).

[shokhead]

When i was younger,i could get pretty darn high and hear everything.

[nightflier]

I was listening to these tones with my headphones, so the feeling it part I'm more immune to, I think. Is there a place online where there are low Hz samples?

[Dusty Chalk]

You don't have any feeling in your ears?

[shokhead]

The other day i was listening to Nightfly and noticed if i turn my left ear towards the front speakers i could hear the snars{spelled right} on the snardrum but turning with my right ear towards the fronts i couldnt.

[audio_dude]

Yes, i can hear TV's, CRT monitors, and some types of lights (i don't know what type, i think they may be halogen, we have a set in out kitchen and i can't stand to have them on)

oh, and for REALLY low htz, if you can hook your audio up to your computer, you can use the NCH tone generator, google it, i think the demo lasts 30days...

[GTF]

Nightflier I have a BassZone test cd and with my home built transmission line subs I could hear 10 hz. They played 10 hz to at least 85 db's. It had to be above a certain volume level to start hearing it though which I don't recall.
My present subs, also transmission line, don't go as low but are vastly superior in bass resolution. Bass detail on line as to Quad midrange compared to BOSE midrange.
NOT Boom boom thud, boom boom thud, etc. You know like most subs nowadays.
Thank you low-fi car guy's for this acceptance of boom boom thud, boom boom thud.

GTF
BTW I'm 54 and can hear 19,000 hz.

[audio_dude]

i took the test again, and i could still faintly hear that high pitched noise at 25k, its really anoying, and now i must go take an advil for this pounding headache (naw, i'm just kidding, but i can still here to 25k, i wonder if thats a good thing?)

[nightflier]

GTF, Where did you get the BassZone CD. Is it available online?

Audio_dude, since hearing diminishes by age, how young are you? Is the pic accurate?

[shokhead]

Nightflier I have a BassZone test cd and with my home built transmission line subs I could hear 10 hz. They played 10 hz to at least 85 db's. It had to be above a certain volume level to start hearing it though which I don't recall.
My present subs, also transmission line, don't go as low but are vastly superior in bass resolution. Bass detail on line as to Quad midrange compared to BOSE midrange.
NOT Boom boom thud, boom boom thud, etc. You know like most subs nowadays.
Thank you low-fi car guy's for this acceptance of boom boom thud, boom boom thud.

GTF
BTW I'm 54 and can hear 19,000 hz.

Heard or felt 10Hz?

[GTF]

Heard and felt.
My 18 year old daughter had to leave the house when I was using the BassZone cd.
I also had to remove tools from the garage wall behind the living room and
put many nick-nacks on the floor so they didn't vibrate off their shelf's.
nightflier I think they are out of business. last I heard anyway.
I'll see if I can copy it.

transmission lines subs are great.
Except! No boom, boom, thud. Boom, boom, thud. Boom, boom, thud.

GTF