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

[yourlord]

I just ran a test on myself the other day by generating sine wave tones at various frequencies and found my hearing cut off right at 12.9kHz..

I was kind of shocked at how low it was, and how abrupt the cut off was for me.. I could hear 12.9kHz clear as a bell and just as loud as I can hear 8kHz, but I stepped from 12.9kHz up to 13kHz in 10Hz increments and my ability to hear the tones decreased dramatically, to essentially being completely gone at 13kHz, and barely perceptible at all at 12.99kHz.

I otherwise haven't noticed any detriment to my music listening activities.

I'm 40 and have been listening to metal at ear bleeding levels my whole life. To add to the bad vibes, I also played bass in a metal band for 17 years at skull splitting levels. (My rig is a 700Wrms head driving 8 10" and 2 15" speakers. The last 2 years of the band featured 3 guitarists all pushing 100 tube watts minimum into 4x12" cabs. All of that backed by acoustic drums.)

I've not been kind to my ears.