What's the highest frequency you can hear?

[MRC01]

I'm turning 71 next month and the highest frequency I can hear is about 10K. The good news is that I still enjoy music as much as I ever have. I love good recordings and still get immensely annoyed by bad ones.

That's excellent for age 71. My wife is in her 60s and can't hear 10K. She's starting to miss some of the quieter & more distant bird calls outside

 

[solderdude]

You just passed the zero cross point at 111111 where all your bits turn off at once. LOL.

But he did get 1 bit extra which switched on he did not have before (or was aware of existed) that is so heavy it weighs a fraction more than the 6 bits that were switched off at that time.

11kHz left (but not steep), 14kHz right (steep).
Seems to cause a high pitched tinnitus in my case in the left ear. I can manage that by listening to music with EQ in the left ear that compensates between 11kHz and 14kHz level. When I do this 'therapy' at least once in a few days the tinnitus remains so low that it is only audible in very quiet conditions.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

I used to hear 20kHz, when I was about 20 years old. Tested. As of a couple of years ago, it was down to about 14kHz.

Semi-funny story: Years ago I had a CRT TV that had transformer noise at NTSC line rate (15.7 kHz). It used to drive me crazy with that high-pitched squeal, but my parents didn't hear it at all. After a couple of years, I noticed it was gone and thought it had somehow fixed itself. Upon further reflection, I realized it was still screaming away and what had changed was that I had become like my parents and could no longer hear it either.

Wow. That's actually not a funny story.

As a child there were certain places I couldn't be in the same room as the TV's due to the high pitched sound hurting my ears.

 

[TheAVInsider]

15.5khz @ age 50ish.
16khz sounds louder, but has a distorted shrill deeper sound, tested on multiple systems from multiple sources, so I know my ears well.

 

[Solveit]

66 years and can hear to 12khz, barerly.

 

[mlsstl]

Another story -- some years ago (when I was about 60) I had a Conrad Johnson tube preamp that I thought sounded great. My son, then about 30, was visiting from out-of-town and complained about a squeal he was hearing. Got the scope out and sure enough, there was a high pitched noise around 15KHz that he could hear but I couldn't. Turned out the power supply caps needed replacing which fixed the problem.

Sometimes things are broken and we don't even know!

 

[Danaxus]

16-17k @ 41. Begs the question though, is that good for anything other than hunting mosquitoes? Sounds start getting uncomfortable after 8k, and irritating as hell after 11k. When listening to a tone sweep, the sudden silence at 16k-17k was a merciful reprieve.

I'm guessing I wouldn't even notice if I lost all hearing about 8-10k, even if that change happened overnight. Am I being an idiot by not seeing the value in frequencies that high?

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

I just tested my hearing with this video and I Can barely hear it.
What's the highest frequency you can hear ?

I certainly heard the three two one! Nothing since. Probably the fault of this ancient Smart phone!

 

[restorer-john]

As a child there were certain places I couldn't be in the same room as the TV's due to the high pitched sound hurting my ears.

I couldn't stay into the electrical section of department stores and discount stores due to the wall of TVs (all CRTs) back in the 70s and 80s. I had to stand outside after a minute or so.

In my 20s, I could tell which TVs were still 'on' but showing a black picture when we shut down all the gear after hours in the stores I worked in. I remember the Tandy computer monitors- as I locked the roller door at night, I'd say to my assistant- "you left one of the computer monitors on" and send him back in before arming the alarm and locking the store.

 

[Andysu]

i can hear it when moving the small JBL go3 speaker in direct line with each ear

 

[Klonatans]

I’m 47 and I could reach 16,5 KHz. A bit short of 65 KHz my ribbon tweeter equipped speakers are capable of.

 

[fatoldgit]

63 yo.

Have a full range professional hearing test each year (with an ear cleaning a week before)

Luckily I have very even response in each ear (no dips etc) and can hear to 13.5k.

Given my age and luck, I protect what I have with ear plugs AND over ear protectors ("ear muffs") when using any power equipment,,,even a vacuum cleaner (or when the wife is going off at me for some minor misdemeanour)

Peter

 

[Music1969]

The Same YouTube channel has other tones.

I can hear 15kHz but not 16kHz but I wonder if that might be my headphones limitation

I do know my speaker tweeters play flat to 20kHz (measured with calibrated mic) , so that will be better for this test.

 

[Andysu]

online tone frequency generator ( i noted a additional noise buzzing of a sort ) i can hear 13,000khz but also buzzing maybe due to type website

One moment, please...

 

[Frank2]

16-17k @ 41. Begs the question though, is that good for anything other than hunting mosquitoes? Sounds start getting uncomfortable after 8k, and irritating as hell after 11k. When listening to a tone sweep, the sudden silence at 16k-17k was a merciful reprieve.

I'm guessing I wouldn't even notice if I lost all hearing about 8-10k, even if that change happened overnight. Am I being an idiot by not seeing the value in frequencies that high?

17 kHz and higher is good for chasing away teenagers: https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/...ent-mosquito-device-used-to-disperse-teen-gro

The frequencies used by the device, known as the Mosquito, can only be heard by young people and children. Most people have lost the ability to hear those frequencies, 17 - 18 kHz, by the time they reach 25 years of age.

There typically is not much information in music above 12 kHz, though I do remember some songs of the past sounding more crisp and airy when I was younger.

 

[Frank2]

I could never hear 20 kHz, even as a kid. I could hear up to around 17 kHz in my 30s, and now the highest I can hear as a pure sine wave is 14k with my right ear and 13k with my left. As for lows, I can hear down to around 17 Hz - I don't think it's the 34 Hz harmonic because it's on LCD-2F headphones which have very low bass distortion. From what I read for age 55 I am fortunate.

What's strange is when I test my HF hearing in a different way, by applying low pass filters to high quality recordings of jangling keys or castanets, having lots of energy at 20 kHz and higher, I can detect a low pass filter with a slightly higher cutoff frequency than I can hear as a pure tone. I can detect how it smears the crispness of transients, even though I can't hear it as a sin wave. For example I can detect the low pass filter with a cutoff of 15k, which I can't hear as a pure tone. Is that because the slope of the cutoff filter isn't steep enough, or is it because our ears are non-linear devices that are not symmetric in the time & frequency domains?

Speculation: Maybe you can hear the lower frequency harmonics that come with the frequencies above 15 kHz?
At bass frequencies there is a mechanism where emphasis on the high frequency harmonics of a low frequency tone can make your brain think it hears the lower frequency tone. Maybe something similar is at work here in the treble domain? This may even be one of the reasons people seem to like a little bit of harmonic distortion.

 

[Ken Tajalli]

Can hear it on my PC speakers (1990's 2.1 @ £15), clearly on both ears!
But if I move my head, the sound comes and goes because of interferences.
I can hear to 16Khz, well sense it.
I am 63.
(and NO! without putting my hand to my ears )

 

[solderdude]

What about with headpones ?
Cheap PC speakers may not be the best transducers for this test.

 

[Ken Tajalli]

What about with headpones ?
Cheap PC speakers may not be the best transducers for this test.

I'll try at home on my LCD-XC, but if I damage my ears, I'll come up to North Pole and drag you to Africa, cheeky penguin

 

[solderdude]

Play 1kHz so it is tolerable (so not loud) then sweep.

Good luck finding penguins on the north pole