"Mosquito" ringtone, can you hear it? (1 Viewer)

[Dennis*G]

I moved my laptop onto a table (was lap/couch before) and when its on the table I can hear the tone. Only thing it did to my dog was make her ears go down. lol.

So those of you with laptops, make sure you are on a hard surface.

 

[MarkHastings]

When I analyzed the file, it was fine, it's just that the 16K tone is very loud (off the charts). That's probably why you hear the clicking.

 

[PhillJones]

That sound is easier to hear bcause they just abruptly start and stop the waveform. This effectively puts a click at the beginning and end of the sound.

Try this one

mosquito

Also, if I turn the volume up too loud, I can hear low frequency distortion. As they used to say at school, 'Remember, you're only cheating yourself'.

Actually, in that mp3 file, the sound is 16kHz, not 17, which might be part of why so many people can hear it.

 

[MarkHastings]

Frequency Analysis:

From the MP3 that Garrett posted:




From the WAV that Phill posted:



You can see that the MP3 has a lot more lower frequencies that are louder than the ones in the WAV file. Perhaps this is due to the nature of the MP3 conversion?

 

[Stan]

I give up, what do I do to truly hear this "sound"?

Two systems I've tried play it back through Windows Media Player. Is Media Player modifying the output of the MP3 file? I'm not hearing anything even slightly related to what everyone else is hearing.

It sounds like a small sound bite from an old, scratched vinyl LP.

 

[MarkHastings]

Stan, if you can't hear the sound, you can't hear the sound. The only thing you can do is lower the frequency to a point where you can start to hear the sound...

I lowered the frequencies on the files to help people hear the noise: WARNING: Listening to these too much will give you a headache!

-5 Semitones (sound is now in the 12K range)

-8 Semitones (sound is now in the 10K range)

-10 Semitones (sound is now in the 9K range)



p.s. I can now hear all three. If you still can't, I can go lower...

 

[Stan]

Just listened to the sound PhillJones put up.

Came through loud and clear, no more annoying than the beep from a cheap alarm clock.

This is the supposed "secret" sound that us 30+ elders can't hear?

 

[Stan]

OK Mark, for the first time I heard what people are talking about. All three MP3s were very annoying high pitched tones. With the -10 Semitones file I heard a low and high pitch tone together.

I don't know whether I can or can't hear the sound from the link the original poster provided. Like I mentioned above, I hear playback that sounds like an old scratched vinyl LP.

Don't mean to hog this thread, but the whole "hearing" thing fascinates me. A few years ago, a hard drive began to fail in computer at my last job. It was very intermittent, but it made this high pitched squeal that drove me crazy, yet none of the 40 or so co-workers in my area could hear it.

Listening to the on/off squeals, I was finally able to track it down, knew exactly which system it was coming from yet even the person using the computer couldn't hear it. A week or so later the hard drive croaked and the sound went away.

I'm just curious about this whole thing and would like to hear a true version of this "sound".

Can I really hear Mariah Carey's high notes and dog whistles? I don't know. Maybe this thread will tell me the truth.

 

[PhillJones]

You could try hooking you PC up to your main stereo, assuming it's a good one and generating the sound with audacity like I did or some freeware signal generator.

You may just have better than average hearing.

 

[Tim L]

whoa- that is pretty annoying- I can hear it fine- but still wouldn't want to use it.
Tim

 

[Kevin T]

my fiance and i could hear both the mp3 and the wav files clearly. i'm 28 (29 in july) and she's 31. who says all those heavy metal concerts will ruin your hearing! now i can use this as justification to purchase even more expensive stereo equipment.

kevin t

 

[Garrett Lundy]

My wife can only hear the "click". I told her country music is bad for her health.....

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Found a different site with samples from 10K upto 25K.

This time I kept the volume steady and used my Sennheiser headphones. I could hear 16K, but 17K gave me a headache (even though I couldn't process the "sound").

http://www.ochenk.com/entry.php?id=63

 

[MarkHastings]

LMAO! I don't know if this is real or not, but it looks like someone has turned the tables on teens. What teens thought was a clever way to fool adults (who can't hear the mosquito ringtone), now find their keen sense of hearing as a disadvantage:
http://www.compoundsecurity.co.uk/te..._products.html

 

[Francois Caron]

Actually, it's the other way around. The mosquito tone was created to scatter teenagers in public places. It was the teen-agers who discovered that they could use it as a ringtone. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_Ringtone for more info.

Alas, it doesn't work all that well as a ringtone either. A surprisingly high number of adults over forty (including myself) can hear many variants of the mosquito ringtone. In my case, it hurts my ears.

 

[MarkHastings]

Neat. But I'd still love to get one of those things because I can't hear it. I could walk around with it blarring all day.

 

[Jeff_CusBlues]

Not too low, you don't want us to make a mess. LOL

 

[Jeff_CusBlues]

Garrett's first post mentioned this. Talk about a thread going full circle. lol

Also, I'm 45 and knew the kids were using it for texting and not taking calls. I guess I'm just more hip. Just kidding.

On my Toshiba Satellite laptop, I couldn't hear the original tone. My wife, who is 41 and has much better hearing, could hear it fine. I put my ears right up to the speaker and could barely hear the tone.

 

[Brian Collins]

Using this link I was able to hear the 18K, but not the 19K. I'm 32 using Altec Lansing computer speakers. I could hear the click of 19K, but not the tone. Very interesting.

 

[MarkHastings]

, I haven't looked at this thread in a while.

That's funny. It reminds me of those jokes on the Simpsons: "Cool, The army uses Hum-V's now!"

or "This is like Speed 2, but with a bus!"