Cool Hearing Test

using speakers, I could hear just below 15k, but of course I needed reading glasses to see I'm between "very good - Remarkable"
 
As I approach the fabled three score and ten, I am losing my high frequency hearing. Fortunately it doesn't seem to affect my enjoyment of music. It reminds me of studying hearing frequency response in school, some 50-60 years ago. I was also learning piano and I figured out that the lowest A on the keyboard was slightly below 30 Hz and highest C was slightly above 4000 Hz (cycles per second at that time). I asked my piano teacher whether he had any students who couldn't hear the lowest notes on the piano, since I had read that the human ear hears between 30 and 15,000 Hz. He said that, no, he never had a student who couldn't hear the lowest note, but he had several older male students over the years who couldn't hear the top notes on the piano. So if you can hear 4000 Hz, then you can hear all the notes on the piano. It also gives you a sense of how high 4000 Hz is and that everything above that are overtones. There are a few instruments whose fundamentals go higher, but not by much.

Larry
 
Other percussion instruments, in particular cymbals, have both fundamentals and high-volume harmonics which go higher.
 
Using my portable Koss Sportapro's I got 15.6 and my work laptop. That was primarily in my left ear. I got 14.3 in my right ear just cupping that one and pulling the left earpad off my left ear. The volume setting makes a difference too - harder to hear at lower volmes.

Better phones, or closed headphones might make a difference too.
 
I don't have any true closed-back phones, but in a reasonably quiet house i got the same (15,280) with either Koss Porta-Pro or HD600. The volume definitely makes a difference; as I posted earlier I can turn it up loud enough to "hear" about 17,000, although that's almost more feeling than hearing.
 
Be happy Rob. Your hearing is good enough that you should be listening to analog.
 
:D my post was intended to suggest that there might be little difference among headphones except as to type (open vs closed) and that volume can make a significant difference
 
astrotoy said:
As I approach the fabled three score and ten, I am losing my high frequency hearing. Fortunately it doesn't seem to affect my enjoyment of music. It reminds me of studying hearing frequency response in school, some 50-60 years ago. I was also learning piano and I figured out that the lowest A on the keyboard was slightly below 30 Hz and highest C was slightly above 4000 Hz (cycles per second at that time). I asked my piano teacher whether he had any students who couldn't hear the lowest notes on the piano, since I had read that the human ear hears between 30 and 15,000 Hz. He said that, no, he never had a student who couldn't hear the lowest note, but he had several older male students over the years who couldn't hear the top notes on the piano. So if you can hear 4000 Hz, then you can hear all the notes on the piano. It also gives you a sense of how high 4000 Hz is and that everything above that are overtones. There are a few instruments whose fundamentals go higher, but not by much.

Larry
Click to expand...


I think that Larry and Ralph (Kiwi) are capturing an interesting idea in their posts.

Also it is not just about the frequency that we can hear up to. Too bad there is not a test for the critical, musical or so called Golden Ear. What to listen for in the music. I'm sure I have a lot to learn in that department. At least those things can be developed and learned.

At the end of the day it is all about how the music moves us and the level of emotional involvement that we attain with the music we hear.
 
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