How's your hearing?

Isana Kadeb · Post by **Isana Kadeb** » 2006-12-08 12:54am

What sorts of volume you guys listening to the higher frequencies at? Beyond 17khz I have to turn up the volume quite a bit to hear it.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2006-12-08 12:55am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I thought Tinnitus wasn't so much actual hearing loss but more like just a form of hearing damage?

My tinnitus takes the form of an extremely high pitched noise that I usually only hear in extremely quiet settings, and even then I'm usually not aware of it unless I'm doing nothing.

I can just about make out 15.8 kHz, above that I just hear the background hiss.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2006-12-08 01:03am

Isana Kadeb wrote:What sorts of volume you guys listening to the higher frequencies at? Beyond 17khz I have to turn up the volume quite a bit to hear it.

My standard speaker setting is around 1/8th maximum volume. I can hear the 19 at twice that, which is still comfortable, but loud enough that it's as disrupting to conversation as TV. I play games at that level. The 21 whatever one is veeeeeery noticable at that level and it makes this horrific dizzzzzzt noise. I can hear it on Media Player classic at normal and on WMP on full volume easily. The sound is less crisp and softer on WMP, and less mind-boring. The lower frequency ones are just regoddamdiculously painful.

Metatwaddle · Post by **Metatwaddle** » 2006-12-08 01:59am

17.7 kHz was the highest I could hear. Kind of disappointed about that, because I'm pretty careful about my hearing. But my perfect pitch worked on the 14.4 kHz one (I could tell it was an A), which was pretty cool. Usually my sense of pitch tends to die once it gets too high or too low.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2006-12-08 02:54am

Isana Kadeb wrote:What sorts of volume you guys listening to the higher frequencies at? Beyond 17khz I have to turn up the volume quite a bit to hear it.

Comfortably loud, I'd say around ~75dbA; just enough to mask a vacuum cleaner at ~5 meters.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2006-12-08 02:56am

Covenant in Jaepheth's Blender thread wrote:...but I'm still in a near death state from that goddamn sound test.

High-frequency noises break stuff in your head too?

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2006-12-08 03:30am

18.8kHz tone (Though I'm not sure if my speakers can handle higher tones) at age 18.
Bah, certainly didn't affect me at the Classical Concert last night, even with extremely high pitch tones on the violin

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2006-12-08 03:53am

Oh, and this past Thanksgiving makes me a quarter century!

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2006-12-08 04:47am

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:
Covenant in Jaepheth's Blender thread wrote:...but I'm still in a near death state from that goddamn sound test.
High-frequency noises break stuff in your head too?

Yeah, it was pretty bad. My ears weren't ringing, they just felt like they do when I bang them with the q-tip thing by mistake. It was pretty horrific. They're still pretty sore, but no longer feel like there were needles in them.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-12-08 05:35am

I got 17.7 or so. After that, I couldn't tell if it was the sound or my speakers buzzing.

At 14 or so though, my head just throbbed. Damn you, noisepain!

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2006-12-08 08:28am

18.8kHz

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2006-12-08 09:03am

According to the audiologist test I had done a couple weeks ago, my hearing's good to 17.5kHz or so, with my right ear being down about 1-2dB across the entire frequency range. There's also a mild dip from 1-4kHz in both ears thanks to too many loud rock concerts. However, overall sensitivity is still well above average, I can hear a pin drop onto carpet from across the room. This makes trying to sleep at night an exercise in futility when my sleep schedule gets out of whack and I'm suffering from insomnia, I can hear everything and it drives me nuts.

On this test I can hear up to 17.7kHz, after that I can still pick it up from the clicks when each tone starts & stops.

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2006-12-08 09:40am

I think my speakers crapped out on me, because on the higher three or so I heard tones that were definitely not above 14 kHz. So I'll think I'll trust the real hearing test I took a while back, which said I have pretty much perfect hearing...

Also: My fucking ears hurt now!!

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2006-12-08 01:22pm

I can hear up to 19.9 kHz at 25 years old. I only hear the start and stop clicks at the next level. I had to turn the volume up before I could hear 18.8 and 19.9.

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2006-12-08 01:39pm

17.7 Khz here at age 24.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2006-12-08 02:12pm

Covenant wrote:
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:
Covenant in Jaepheth's Blender thread wrote:...but I'm still in a near death state from that goddamn sound test.
High-frequency noises break stuff in your head too?
Yeah, it was pretty bad. My ears weren't ringing, they just felt like they do when I bang them with the q-tip thing by mistake. It was pretty horrific. They're still pretty sore, but no longer feel like there were needles in them.

I imagine the pain as a laser slicing into soft brain matter. It HURTS!

Saurencaerthai · Post by **Saurencaerthai** » 2006-12-08 03:32pm

I was able to get up to somewhere between 17.7kHz and 18.8kHz, but then again my my speakers begin to roll off at around the 16.7 mark, so I still might be able to hear higher.

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2006-12-08 03:50pm

Shinova wrote:Is raising the speaker volume sort of like cheating or something?

No. If you can't percieve it, then you won't percieve it no matter how much energy you throw behind it.* The response of most consumer-grade audio tends to drop off dramatically around or above twenty kilohertz and below around twenty hertz. It's not a perfect cut-off, though. The response starts decreasing before you hit those points. So the actual volume coming from your speakers at those frequencies is lower than it should be. So it's useful to turn up the volume to make sure that you're actually percieving something between the clicks demarcating the beginning and end of the tone.

(* - Well, up to the point where you're throwing enough energy at it to do you physical harm in short order. But this takes a lot of energy.)

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2006-12-09 06:27pm

21.4...I'd actually assumed my hearing was quite bad, I'm often saying "sorry, what?"

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2006-12-09 06:33pm

Spyder wrote:21.4...I'd actually assumed my hearing was quite bad, I'm often saying "sorry, what?"

I was rather surprised that my hearing was fine as well. I think the kiwis just have a tendency to mumble.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2006-12-09 07:53pm

Spin Echo wrote:
Spyder wrote:21.4...I'd actually assumed my hearing was quite bad, I'm often saying "sorry, what?"
I was rather surprised that my hearing was fine as well. I think the kiwis just have a tendency to mumble.

Some of us are worse then others. I know I'm particularly lazy with my pronounciation. I'll often try to say something too quickly while dropping a consonant every now and then.

Saurencaerthai · Post by **Saurencaerthai** » 2006-12-09 09:19pm

Spyder wrote:21.4...I'd actually assumed my hearing was quite bad, I'm often saying "sorry, what?"

Being able to hear certain frequencies and the actual ability to interpret the sound are sometimes two very different things. My mother, for example, fares very well on the frequency ranges that can hear but sometimes has issues with cognition, IE: needing people to repeat something.

Big Phil · Post by **Big Phil** » 2006-12-09 11:30pm

I heard them all up to 21.1kHz. My wife heard everything up to 14.9, but then could only hear ever other one or so after that. Weird...

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-12-10 12:39am

I think my computer automatically drops down octaves, because I heard it clearly up through 21.1, and the sound wasn't sequentially increasing.

Medic · Post by **Medic** » 2006-12-10 01:02am

Good god, the 1st one hurt my ears, I'm not taking this test since I'll only have to go higher, shit, ow. [my sound isn't even near maxed]

edit: I lied, all the way up to 21.1 for me. Under-20's my ass.