Thread: Can you hear this?

Everything will affect this: sound card, amplifiers, speakers, headphones for sure, possibly even mp3 codecs, sound card drivers (not sure about those).

I've done a frequency hearing test few times and it is done in a acoustically isolated booth with special audio equipment. Commercial electronics are rarely designed for so high frequencies. It's also tested in semi-random fashion with silent bits.

Our libraries use cheap commercial pcs, but I hope your library has audio-oriented pc. Still, I would suggest taking this test with a pinch of salt (no offence).

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

I'm 30 (I know I know, I don't act like it)

In another thread you said you were 71 IIRC ? Here I was showing you all kinds of respect .... and now I find out you're still wet behind the ears .

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

In another thread you said you were 71 IIRC ? Here I was showing you all kinds of respect .... and now I find out you're still wet behind the ears .

He was talking about his socks that he inherited from his Grandpa Jimmy

Originally Posted by ursus

Our libraries use cheap commercial pcs, but I hope your library has audio-oriented pc. Still, I would suggest taking this test with a pinch of salt (no offence).

None taken! I thought it might be amusing to play annoying high pitched squeals in an otherwise silent library where people are trying to read and research

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

In another thread you said you were 71 IIRC ?

well... I didn't say 71 what

And I haven't said 30 what either

Originally Posted by livingontheedge

Hopefully it's just crappy laptop speakers, I'll try with headphones.


With headphones I could hear 16-20 but not 17 but just barely and at full volume.

On my office PC I could hear all but 17 as it was playing. I could hear a slight click when 17 started and when it ended. No problem hearing the rest. I am 45

on a crappy monitor speakers, I can hear up to 17KHz.

What bothers me is that I love music. Makes me wonder what I'm not hearing. OTOH, as Muddy Waters sings,"You can't spend what you ain't got and you can't lose what you ain't never had."

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

What bothers me is that I love music. Makes me wonder what I'm not hearing. OTOH, as Muddy Waters sings,"You can't spend what you ain't got and you can't lose what you ain't never had."

I'd think that most basic notes in music happen on much lower frequencies than 20kHz, and it's mostly harmonics of the base frequencies and imperfections that are at so high frequencies. I'm not completely sure about this, so I'd value audio pros' opinion on this.

Frequencies of Musical Notes
I think that means that in written music, the highest note written is about 5000 Hz. There might be something in percussion, distorted guitars and vocals, but they'd be minute differences IMO.

Thus, even at the off-chance that this test would be valid, I'd wager you still hear a lion's share of it, just not as crisp as it as you would otherwise.

To me music is more about feelings and the emotions the music contains, than OCDing about having capability (both equipment and hearing vise) to hear every squeak at 20kHz.

If you're really bothered by this, get the test done properly and see what can be done.

I'm 31. I could hear 15-17 clearly, then nothing.

Well, not really nothing. For some of them, I could hear a quieter, lower pitched sound. That is, from 15 through 17, the sound got higher in frequency, then I heard nothing at all for 18, then 19-22 had a weird lower sound. It was still high-pitched, but not higher than 17 had been.

Anyway, for those of you who are hearing, for example, "all of them but X", make sure that those after X are actually increasing in frequency as they should, rather than just hearing "something" that may be some other distortion (harmonic? resonance?)

Especially those of you over 25 or so.

Heh, I just heard all of them except for 16khz through my headphones and home PC speakers. oh well