Cool Hearing Test

Odyssey

Odyssey

Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2014
Messages
643
Location
Austin, TX & Suburban Chicago
This is not a clinical test. It will only give you a rough idea of your hearing of high frequencies.

Before you click on this it is best to hook up headphones. I tried this over the speakers first. More accurate results with headphones to the extent that this test is accurate. Fun to try with your wife or S.O. Once you do start hearing something it can get loud fast with your headphones on if you have the volume turned up.

Remember, this is youtube fun and the results are not entirely accurate.

 
There is an iPhone app called Dogwhistle. My tired old ears go to a little over the 15 kHz mark as well. The real fun with this app is when I have it turned up to 18,000 to 20,000 Hz. My kids go bananas even when played through the iPhone speaker. Clearly their young ears are more sensitive than my 52 yr old ones. All silent up there to me.

Which calls into question as to why we need speakers and headphones that can go to 40,000 Hz! Or 24/192 files. Not to open up that old saw! Though listening to music and quality of playback is not just frequency response.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
dufferdan said:
There is an iPhone app called Dogwhistle. My tired old ears go to a little over the 15 kHz mark as well. The real fun with this app is when I have it turned up to 18,000 to 20,000 Hz. My kids go bananas even when played through the iPhone speaker. Clearly their young ears are more sensitive than my 52 yr old ones. All silent up there to me.

Which calls into question as to why we need speakers and headphones that can go to 40,000 Hz! Or 24/192 files. Not to open up that old saw! Though listening to music and quality of playback is not just frequency response.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Welcome to Audioshark Dufferdan! Glad to see you are here. :hey:
 
I feel pretty good! At 61 I'm still just over 15000 at a reasonable volume, and if I turn up the volume some (where the lower frequencies are uncomfortably loud) over 16000.
 
Did it twice and both times got 15708Hz. Not great but ah well.
 
OK Surface Pro 3 loudspeakers not headphones. So these tinny loudspeakers may fall short of any accuracy. At 100% volume, some high frequency oscillation at 16KHz, nothing at 15Khz and then locked in at 14KHz. Must try headphones but if that's any definitive indication I have decrepit loss plus some tinnitus cancellation effects. IT probably started in 1980, roller rink skating then progressing to Blue Light discos and then the 80s studio club scene and all those rock concerts. Nowadays, I just walk around with a stiff.
 
rbbert said:
Depends on your age; it might actually be great, or it might be terrible (if for example you are 30) :cool:
Click to expand...

I don't think hearing 15708Hz at 30 would be considered "terrible." They tell you not to use your computer speakers and use headphones for this test. I used my 'awesome' Logitech computer speakers with my wife running the vacuum cleaner in the background and I could still hear well over 15kHz even with all of that racket going on.
 
mep said:
I don't think hearing 15708Hz at 30 would be considered "terrible."
Click to expand...

Yeah, I do think it would be considered "terrible". Sure, (mis)using this particular test and getting that result might not mean much, but if a 30 yr old has a significant hearing drop at under 16 kHz there has been damage at some point (infection, acoustic or other trauma, drugs, poisoning, etc)
 
rbbert said:
Yeah, I do think it would be considered "terrible". Sure, (mis)using this particular test and getting that result might not mean much, but if a 30 yr old has a significant hearing drop at under 16 kHz there has been damage at some point (infection, acoustic or other trauma, drugs, poisoning, etc)
Click to expand...

From Audiologic Profile at the High Frequencies in Individuals Between 30 to 40 Years with Normal Hearing

"OLIVA et al. (7), aiming at establishing normal hearing parameters in frequencies above 8,000 Hz, carried out a preliminary study, in which they assessed bone conduction from 100 Hz to 20 kHz. Electrodes were placed in both or in only one mastoid, since according to the authors, the electrical signal spreads in any direction as it happens in bone conduction. The result achieved shows that the hearing limit for high frequencies can only be achieved by young people, usually below 20 years of age. This limit was seen in 19.6 kHz; however, the average for this age group is 18.5 kHz. As age increases, this maximum limit reduces, quantified by the authors in about 2,000 Hz per decade of life after 20 years of age. Thus, a 45 year old person will have normal hearing up to 14 kHz, approximately."

So, to be 30 and hear above 15kHz might not be great, but it damn sure isn't terrible. Terrible would be the guys who shoot guns all of their lives with no hearing protection or work in high noise environments with no hearing protection. Once upon a time in a former life I was an aircraft sheet metal mechanic. I always wore my hearing protection (and their were no rules then that required you to, it was just common sense to me) because I knew I needed to protect my ears. I'll never forget getting in the car with an older mechanic and heading over to a job site. This was before wearing seat belts was mandatory. So the older mechanic doesn't put on his seat belt (and yeah, I did, because I always believed in safety) and we start driving and his seat belt alarm starts chiming and it's driving me nuts. I finally turned to him and said "Don't you hear that?" And he replied "Hear what?" I said "Your seat belt alarm." His reply was "You can hear that?"
 
Rob-The bottom line is that you should be proud and happy that you can still here 16kHz. Many people younger than you can't hear that high.
 
Actually what I was thinking is that based on the handful of posts here (admittedly a very unscientific sampling) perhaps audiophiles do have better hearing acuity than average, independent of (presumed) better auditory perception and processing. Or maybe we're all just fooling ourselves...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top