What's your upper hearing range?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bubba po
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Bubba po said:
Added to that, the human brain is an incredible instrument, too. From the frequencies it actually hears, the brain synthesises the upper harmonics that it should be hearing, so you can still appreciate music in pretty much its full range, even though the actual frequency response of your lug'oles may be compromised. :)
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Does this explain why I think I sound good? My brain is actually making up the good bits?
 
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Bats are good up to 50kHz. And in terms of annoying sounds of the world, I think they have a pretty good market share.
 
Shadow_7 said:
Bats are good up to 50kHz. And in terms of annoying sounds of the world, I think they have a pretty good market share.
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And they hide in sacks of potatoes and scare children !
 
Bubba po said:
Look, if you want to go out into the countryside and listen to caterpillars eating leaves, or witness grizzled shepherds inducing their dogs to go left or right by the application of a whistle which has NO DISCERNIBLE FUNCTION to the normally-hearing members of the human species, then that's your affair. I come from a country where one is NOT left twiddling one's thumbs for twenty-five whole minutes before someone has the common decency to acknowledge one's existence. I suppose it's too much to expect, to have a question acknowledged on a website by strangers, within a reasonable time period, I expect.

:mad:
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I think you forgot about the 10 hour time difference, for one thing.....
 
Just listening through laptop speakers with a test oscillator in logic, I can hear a 17500hz sine wave but not a 18khz one, although my ears hurt when I play it...

I'll try it on my headphones later that I know definitely go up to 20khz
 
soundchaser59 said:
I think you forgot about the 10 hour time difference, for one thing.....
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My headphone specs say they go up in that range. But in practice not really. Of course dropping them a couple times probably doesn't help. Headphone specs are always exaggerated IMO. Like you're going to get 5Hz from a little 3" or less cone. While vacuum sealed against your head.
 
You'll get it. You can watch 5Hz...

You might not hear it, but you can at least see it...
 
I can hear right before he says 18k. I was surprised, I've got a slight case of tinnitus so I figured my ears would be dulled, but 18k is pretty good for a 36 year old!
 
The discussion so far has focussed on hearing range and the upper limit.

I'm interested in what happens to the audible range as we get older, and how frequency responses vary from person to person within this audible range. I haven't tested my upper range, but I'm not too worried by it; it's probably fairly normal for a person of my age. I am more worried about changes to hearing capacity at various audible frequencies. For example, I'm (almost) convinced that my ears have a frequency response bump at around 2.5k, and another at about 200hz, and I find both those frequencies unpleasant.
 
I had a formal hearing test done several yeas back. I had some ongoing ear stuffiness for a couple of weeks (ended up being my first serious bout with sinus issues)...so my doctor had me get my ears checked out.
Turned out my hearing was more sensitive than the average person, but when they did the test they just focused on the typical speech range...so they only tested tones from 250Hz out to 8kHz. My left and right ears were almost identical, with my left ear being just a touch more sensitive in at the 8kHz range, which I've always known. Spikey sounds in the upper end always bug my left ear a bit more than my right. In my band days I would always prefer to stand stage-left so that my left ear was facing away from the rest of the band's amps/drums etc.

It's easy enough to run a basic self-test if you have a really good (full-range) set of headphones, and a typical audio test CD that has tones from 20 Hz to 22 kHz...and for best results have someone else dial through the tones, so you don't know when it's coming....though I've thought about going for a more formal test at an audiology clinic one of these days.
 
At 41, I can still hear pretty well in both ears; I've tested myself at around 14kHz, upper limit. I usually wear earplugs when playing in a band, and even while working with power tools, have for many years. Sometimes co-workers look at you funny when you refuse to do certain tasks without putting in the plugs, but I haven’t regretted it once.

Massive Master said:
This is why I can't use ribbon tweeters...
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Could you explain this one?


Massive Master said:
And why VDO whine drives me absolutely batty to this day (although there are fewer and fewer recordings with it thanks to LCD/LED/Plasma technology).
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I remember as a kid being able to tell whenever there was a TV on in the house, and I thought until recently that that was just an issue with older TV's. I guess I lost that part of my hearing 20 years or more ago, whenever it was I started playing in bands.
 
Armistice said:
Been so damn wet here our grass must be keeping you awake at night.... apologies...
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I imagine growing grass sounds a bit squeaky - rather like someone slowly dragging damp polystyrene across a window.
 
Armistice said:
Been so damn wet here our grass must be keeping you awake at night.... apologies...
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Bubba po said:
I imagine growing grass sounds a bit squeaky - rather like someone slowly dragging damp polystyrene across a window.
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Oddly enough, it sounds like some otherworldly percussion instrument mixed with the sound of talcum powder on a sheet of paper. I'd like to get one. But talc is too messy with kids in the house and I'm scared of space dust fallout from other worlds.....

I sleep fine through the noise though. It's actually quite therapeutic.
 
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