Can't Hear Above 13.5kHz. What Am I Missing? Options

[botface]

Using pure tones at "normal" listening levels I can't hear above 13.5kHz. I was disappointed with that result initially, but on thinking about it I'm not sure.

Assuming the usual 20kHz ceiling for perfect hearing that equates to a D# (give or take a few cents). 10kHz is also D# but 1 octave lower. My 13.5kHz limit is more or less a G#, which is a perfect 4th above the 10kHz D#, or to put it another way I can hear more or less half of the top octave. Given that there are no fundamentals from real instruments up there then at worst I'm losing some upper harmonics.

Add to this the fact that many people found MP3 low passed at 16KHz to be perceptually transparent - and I'm only 2.5kHz short of this - and I'm wondering what I'm actually missing.

I'm sure there are many 20 year olds that could easily ABX a suitable "full range" sample and that same sample low passed at 13.5kHz but how would the difference manifest itself and does it really matter (in a musical sense)?

This post has been edited by botface: Mar 28 2012, 17:13

[Glenn Gundlach]

Using pure tones at "normal" listening levels I can't hear above 13.5kHz. I was disappointed with that result initially, but on thinking about it I'm not sure.

<snip>

I too 'suffer' the same problem but can reliably tell the difference between material low pass filtered at 16 KHz / not filtered and I don't know why.

G²

[Arnold B. Kruege...]

Using pure tones at "normal" listening levels I can't hear above 13.5kHz. I was disappointed with that result initially, but on thinking about it I'm not sure.

<snip>

I too 'suffer' the same problem but can reliably tell the difference between material low pass filtered at 16 KHz / not filtered and I don't know why.

G²

TOS 8?

[Roseval]

Frequencies above the upper threshold of our hearing are not audible.
An undeniable logic. Period.
But is it true?

There is some anecdotic evidence floating around on the internet.
People who has bought a Hires recording and report on an audio forum that it don’t sound like hires. Other chime in with responses like ”Small wonder, this is a BISS recording. They recorded everything at 24/48 so this cannot be a true 24/96 recording”
Often somebody generates a frequency plot showing a sharp roll off at 21 kHz.
Obvious not a true hires recording.
In this way people has found out that they have been scammed and paid a premium for a plain up-sampled recording. But some seems able to detect this by listening.

There are some references to an experiment where people with a hearing limited to 13 kHz (age) could hear the difference between a recording and one filtered at 14 kHz.
Briggs or so? Never found the paper.

This makes me wonder if it is possible that inter modulation distortion of the content above our upper threshold alone or in conjunction with the content below this threshold could map itself into IMD inside our audible range.
It this is true than we are able to hear the impact of a filtering of signals above our upper limit.