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Poll

20KHz or above
[ 5 ] (8.3%)
19KHz-20KHz
[ 15 ] (25%)
18KHz-19KHz
[ 16 ] (26.7%)
17KHz-18KHz
[ 6 ] (10%)
16KHz-17KHz
[ 10 ] (16.7%)
15KHz-16KHz
[ 7 ] (11.7%)
15KHz or below
[ 1 ] (1.7%)

Total Members Voted: 69

Topic: How high can you hear? (Read 16885 times) previous topic - next topic
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How high can you hear?

After using dibrom's sweep.wav test I discovered that I cannot perceive frequencies above 17KHz. I'm curious to see how high others can hear. Please give the approximate frequency your hearing abilities begin to decrease drastically and your age.

Highest frequency heard: 17KHz
Age: 29

How high can you hear?

Reply #1 –
Depends very much on the time of the day. Just after waking up, I can hear > 19kHz, however, during the day and in the evenings, I'm deaf at everything over 17.5kHz.

--
GCP

How high can you hear?

Reply #2 –
my hearing cutoff is  above 17khz and below 18khz

that why i use a cut-off of 18.5khz
Sven Bent - Denmark

How high can you hear?

Reply #3 –
Age : 26
Cutoff : 16 kHz

How high can you hear?

Reply #4 –
i could hear the complete test signal...

age: 19

i also asked my grandpa to give it a try...
70 years, cut-off under 14 khz...

How high can you hear?

Reply #5 –
age: 22
cutoff: 18.5 kHz *

* not really. that's the point where my hearing's sensitivity starts to lower significantly. I can still hear up to 20 kHz, but I'd say that a 20 kHz sine played at the same volume appears to be about 12db quieter than the 18.5 kHz sine. (ATH, anyone?  )
A riddle is a short sword attached to the next 2000 years.

How high can you hear?

Reply #6 –
Quote
Originally posted by ssamadhi97
age: 22
cutoff: 18.5 kHz *

* not really. that's the point where my hearing's sensitivity starts to lower significantly. I can still hear up to 20 kHz, but I'd say that a 20 kHz sine played at the same volume appears to be about 12db quieter than the 18.5 kHz sine. (ATH, anyone?  )


This thread is complete nonsense and shows perfectly that some people do not understand
backgrounds of hearing.

There's no cutoff. ATH increases continuously
with frequency (for high frequencies).

Young people may can hear 40 kHz at SPLs around
140 dB (if you have the equipment to generate this
SPL without a lot of noise in the normal 20...20000 Hz range).

CD players are able to generate useful tones
up to 16 kHz, not more.
--  Frank Klemm

How high can you hear?

Reply #7 –
So...hmmm... how am I supposed to measure my frequency cutoff? 

Regards (and Happy Easter);

Roberto.

Edit: Seems it's not worth measuring anymore, after Frank's post...

How high can you hear?

Reply #8 –
Quote
Originally posted by Frank Klemm
CD players are able to generate useful tones
up to 16 kHz, not more.


What do you mean with "useful tones" ?

How high can you hear?

Reply #9 –
im gonna have to disagree with frank here...

a while ago (before i started frequenting concerts and the like) i made my own test samples (i could rip them if you like) and burned them to a cd.

the headphones used have a response range from 8hz-22khz

i tested with 18hz sine, 20 hz triangle, 20khz sine 21khz sine, and 22khz sine, and 8hz sine.

i was able to hear all except the 8 hz sine, altho the 22khz sine was extremely faint, as was the 20khz sine.  the 21khz sine for some reason seemed more audible than either of these.

on the 8hz sine i was unable to hear tone, but i could hear the headphones moving (a sort of crackle... maybe i shouldnt have pushed them so far)

i can rip these tracks from the CD i made if anyone is interested.

and please dont tell me this is impossible, because i know what i haerd and thats it.

How high can you hear?

Reply #10 –
oh yea when i tested these it was about ayear or so ago, and i was 17 years old

How high can you hear?

Reply #11 –
Quote
Originally posted by Frank Klemm

Young people may can hear 40 kHz at SPLs around
140 dB


I don't believe that's possible without seeing proof of it. Maybe you wanna read this thread about this.

How high can you hear?

Reply #12 –
I would also disagree with Frank. I remember ff123's cut off test (it's still on his site, I think). Picking out a 16 kHz lowpassed clip was quite easy for me.

The 21 kHz sine was more audible because of aliasing effects. A less pronounced 16 kHz sine was probably generated along with the 21 kHz sine. Frequencies above 20 kHz are usually borked on consumer-based products. Doesn't really matter, not many people can reliably hear that high anyway.

My frequency cutoff is 19 kHz, by the way.
Age: 18

How high can you hear?

Reply #13 –
All I said in that thread (ultrasounds affecting audible frequencies... Non linear effects... Mike Richter experiment...) was discussed further in http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000822-29.html (page 29), and lead to the conclusion that there was no proof at all so far, until the speaker or headphone output is recorded with a microphone with ultra wide frequency response, in order to prove that the system doesn't playback audible distortion instead of inaudible frequencies, that would account for people claiming to hear something more when inaudible ultrasounds are played together with music.

By the way, I've read in all physics manuals that asthmatic children could hear up to 30 kHz.

How high can you hear?

Reply #14 –
The poll is growing... I begin to understand why I'm so bad at listening tests :eyebrow:

(I'm the little green bar near the bottom)

How high can you hear?

Reply #15 –
I suppose I shouldn't have used the word "cutoff" but I think people understand my intent. On the sweep, there is a point where the signal seems to disappear completely (unless you can hear the whole sweep, which is entirely possible). For me that's about the 4.0 second mark. I consider that point the "cutoff" since afterwards I cannot distinguish the ever-rising high frequencies from silence. I cannot hear when the track ends - the sound cuts off at a certain point and remains silent until the track is over.

How high can you hear?

Reply #16 –
Soory for the dumb question, but where is this sweep.wav file ? Is it the same as the one at ff132's site ? Do everyone use it ?
Soundforge can generate a complete crap when applying a pitch bend effect to a given sine ... :eyebrow:

How high can you hear?

Reply #17 –
Quote
Originally posted by Frank Klemm

There's no cutoff. ATH increases continuously
with frequency (for high frequencies).


This is certainly correct. The question of this thread should be asked differently. Not "state your cutoff frequency", rather "state the approximate frequency where your hearing abilities begin to decrease drastically". :sign:


P.S.  This is an ATH curve.

How high can you hear?

Reply #18 –
18-19khz, Age: 23

How high can you hear?

Reply #19 –
Age : 17

Cutoff : 19

How high can you hear?

Reply #20 –
Age: 21
Cut-off: 18-19kHz
Casual listening can't really notice subtle differences of a cut-off 16kHz music and a cutoff 19kHz music.

How high can you hear?

Reply #21 –
Age: 23

Cutoff: 19-19.5Khz

How high can you hear?

Reply #22 –
Quote
Originally posted by Pio2001
By the way, I've read in all physics manuals that asthmatic children could hear up to 30 kHz.


haha i have asthma... maybe that explains it.

oh and as far as hearing the difference in lowpassed files of say 16khz... you may not notice it right away but sa you listen to a ton of them then start listening to full freq files, you will then notice.

How high can you hear?

Reply #23 –
I can hear quite easily up to 18 KHz tones. Cranking up the volume and in a quiet environment, I can hear up to 18.5 KHz, but I think this is not a realistic figure. I'm 30.

My father can't hear 16 KHz tones, he's 59.

But one thing is to hear pure tones, and another different thing is to hear those frequencies in real music. I believe masking effects makes impossible to hear frequencies that high in real music.

See

http://www.pcabx.com/training/index.htm

at the "Tone Quality" column see how high can you go in an ABX test.

How high can you hear?

Reply #24 –
Last I tried ff123 tone sweep I lost it somewhere between 17kHz and 17.5 kHz (very faint).

I could never hear a lowpass of 16 kHz on real music (but did notice it on the tone sweep).

BTW and OT: a lowpass of 16kHz doesn't cut the bitrate on APS enough to make it worthwhile for me. But the old dm-presets and r3mix did save me some back then.

Regards, stoff [old aged fart at 32]