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How is your high frequency hearing?

How is your High Frequency Hearing? ( test link inside )

  • Total voters
    342
#121
41 years old, and I heard 17k.

Started to play at 14, didn't wear a pair of earplugs until about 20-21 or so, and also attended far too many really really loud concerts and shows, including one where I clearly experienced blowing something out in my left ear, in which I've had tinnitus ever since.

My tinnitus "feels" like it is at a lower frequency than that 17k level though. However, as was evidenced once again at my wife's Christmas party last night, I have a ridiculously tough time distinguishing sounds that I want to attend to apart from background chatter when it is at a high level, like in a large group. In a quiet house, I can hear all sorts of quiet sounds without a problem. Sitting around a table of 12 people, or out at a noisy bar, just forget it, people may as well resort to sign language to communicate with me.

On the positive side, nice to see I still have some high frequencies left! :)
 
#122
When I initially took the test (Macbook and GK Ultraphones), I left the volume where I normally have it to listen to YouTube and scored 12kHz.

When I goosed the volume to 50%, I noticed an obvious sibilance in the speaker's voice, and my score improved to 14kHz. But that was too loud for comfort. If I didn't think it would be painful, I'd increase the volume level and try again, but I want to protect what little hearing I have left. ;)

Without changing the volume on my Macbook, I switch from Ultraphones to a pair of Sennheiser HD590s and repeated the test. This time my score was 16kHz. I didn't perceive a change in overall volume, but it's possible that the Sennheisers are more sensitive, either overall or at higher frequencies, than the Ultraphones.

Any way you slice it, my hearing ain't what it used to be.
 
#126
joebar said:
43 years old and got 16k.
I cannot imagine needing anything above that anyways.
Click to expand...

I got around 16 as well, though I "sensed" more than heard about 17.

Thing is tho, the difference between 16KHz and 20 (more-or-less the normal upper limit) is literally about 4-5 notes. IOW, if you top out at 16, you're not hearing about 1/3 of the last octave.

Or put another way, you really aren't missing much.
 
#127
Marcus Willett said:
I got around 16 as well, though I "sensed" more than heard about 17.

Thing is tho, the difference between 16KHz and 20 (more-or-less the normal upper limit) is literally about 4-5 notes. IOW, if you top out at 16, you're not hearing about 1/3 of the last octave.

Or put another way, you really aren't missing much.
Click to expand...

Exactly - and I don't think that I want to hear 20k! Yikes!

(I know, that isn't the point - It is a reflection of overall ear health)

18k for me at 50yo
 
#128
To the average of older aged people there is a very significant reduction of hearing capacity on frequencies beyond 10K.
Although written in German words but the summary can be easily seen in the graph of the following link:
Link Removed
 
#133
eukatheude said:
I hope so, i did spend an awful lot of time blasting music in my ears at very high volumes.
Click to expand...

It depends.
You just know you can hear 16K but you don't know the hearing threshold level which is phrased in dB.

The ability of hearing 16K is meaningless unless the threshold level is unknown.

That is the reason why most of all self testings like this one is just a funny gag.
 
#134
Just set my iPad volume half way up (no headphones) and didn't bother to drown out any other background noise in the room. I first heard the tone loud and clear at 14k, by 12k it was downright painful so I had to stop. I'll put my poll response at 14k but suspect with good headphones, enough volume and no background noise I'd be much closer to about 16 or 18k. For the record I'm 56 and have never worn hearing protection at concerts or while playing. But I guess now is a good time to start.

I didn't check the link to see if they had a tone test that started in the subsonic frequencies and went up, that would be indeed be a very interesting test.
 
#135
Right this was more of a question just to get a rough ballpark estimate.. The fact that you may hear 18k if the volume it turned way up, but the rest of the lower frequencies are painfully loud.... means you'll actually never hear 18K in real life. I'd say play the test tones once through and set the volume to a level that is comfortable all the way down.. THEN run the test again and see when you hear sound.

If you boost the volume 12db and then say you can hear 18KHz but need to reduce the volume a ton so you don't hurt your ears with the rest of the tones.... the likelyhood of actually having the 18KHz band boosted that much in real life is NIL. So, I know I didn't pharase it this way, and didn't run my first test this way, but you really want to know what's the highest frequency you can hear when the full range is played at the same volume and is NOT too loud.

So, the test isn't.. .given an unlimited volume, what is the highest frequency you can make out... that will never happen in real life. The other test they have... the one where you try and guess if a given frequency is notched from the white noise samples, may be a better test to see if you notice a given frequency at the same volume as other frequencies.

This isn't scientific, but depending on how you run the test, it can give you an idea of your hearing. Thanks everyone for posting.
 
#137
ThisBass said:
It depends.
You just know you can hear 16K but you don't know the hearing threshold level which is phrased in dB.

The ability of hearing 16K is meaningless unless the threshold level is unknown.

That is the reason why most of all self testings like this one is just a funny gag.
Click to expand...
While true, I'd like to think that those who did the sine wave tests did so at a volume that was comfortable in the midrange without boosting the volume when it came to the ultra lows and highs. I know I did.
 
#138
From what I've read elsewhere, and according to talks with my audiologist, only young kids can hear all the way up to 20k. As we get older, we naturally lose some of the top end. If you're a 50-year-old whose hearing starts to drop off at 12-13K, that's normal, don't worry. If your hearing is better than that, you have exceptional ears. While this isn't the definitive list, the accepted norm is about this:

8khz - Everyone
10khz - 60 & Younger
12khz - 50 & Younger
14khz - 49 & Younger
15khz - 39 & Younger
16khz - 30 & Younger
17khz - 24 & Younger
 
#139
seamonkey said:
This can be a dangerous experiment.
A doctor testing your ears is not going to crank the high frequency level until you hear it. They're going to stop testing before it reaches a level that can other hearing damage.
Click to expand...

Why do you conclude that this test "crank the high frequency level until you hear it?

My understanding is that the level remains constant; the variable is an individual's ability to hear test tones at varying frequencies.
 
#140
I think he means that people crank the volume during the highest frequencies with the hopes of hearing them and being able to say they heard 20KHz. I actually turned up the volume quite a but to hear 17KHz but when it hit 14KHz where I can near well it was so loud it hurt my ears.

I'm just guessing I wasn't the only Einstein that did that. I may have been.
 

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