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Have you measured just how high in the freq band you have the ability to hear? (1 Viewer)

James R. Geib

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Nov 7, 2002
Messages
105
Jonathan T,

You may be the only human being in the world who has the ability to hear the sonar calls of the Chalinolobus gouldii microbat, whose calls are concentrated around 30khz!
 

Paul Stiles

Agent
Joined
Oct 4, 2002
Messages
45
My hearing is so sensitive I can hear things that don't exist. I can hear frequencies so high that numbers can't numerate the frequency.

Seriously:

Using "Audio Tester" software and a set of headphones hooked up to a computer sound card (Turtle Beach Santa Cruz) and also running the output of the soundcard through the stereo to verify the headphone results, I can hear, at the high end, up to 15KHz with no problem, up to 16KHz with much reduced sensitivity, and next to nada above 16KHz. Not too bad for 49 years old. Even in my younger days, 17 to 18 KHz was about my top end.

Paul
 

Brett DiMichele

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2001
Messages
3,181
Real Name
Brett
I can hear so low that I am one of the few humans in the
entire world that can hear the Mighty Gnat Fart when reproduced
on the Bose Acoustimass Music System... Some say it's in
the low 10 cycles range.. The world may never know.

I have no idea how bad my hearing is, and I am afraid to
find out..I used to ride ATC's (All Terrain Cycles AKA
Trikes) And they were all 2 stroke racing models and on
more than one occasion I rode open baffeled and thought
that was so cool (mind you it was so loud you literally
couldn't hear anything after hearing this sound for maybe
4 minutes....)

My ears ring on occasion, I thought that at some time or
another everyone's ears did that.... I guess I have Tinnitus...
 

Jonathan T

Second Unit
Joined
Nov 6, 2002
Messages
360
About my hearing, even though I can hear fairly high, in terms of frequency, I need to jack up the volume to do so. As the frequency got higher, or lower, I had to turn up the volume, unill to got to maxx and I couldn't hear ahything anymore. As soon as I get my 280s fixed, I'm gonna test again.
 

Jan Strnad

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 1, 1999
Messages
1,004
Kevin,
Shoot, no one *told* me in the 80's I should be worried about loud concerts wrecking my hearing.
Sure they did! But at 18 years old, who listens? :)
Geoff, don't feel too bad. My hearing tops out around 13-14 kHz, and I have a small amount of tinnitus at 52.
Jan
 

Rick_Brown

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 25, 2001
Messages
449
I agree, Jan. There were definitely newspaper articles in the 80's by experts warning us about loud music concerts and hearing loss. And, no, I didn't heed their advice either!
 

Kevin C Brown

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2000
Messages
5,723
Things *have* changed though. :) I remember going to music stores in the early 80's, and when you'd buy ear plugs, the dudes behind the counter looked at you like you were nuts. Now, it's just business as usual because everyone in general is more aware of what happens.
They even have them for the manufacturing floor where I work, and I don't think that was the case way back then either.
 

Bill W.

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Apr 9, 1999
Messages
77
This got way to long skip it if you like!

Ok, here's the medical point of view.

I see patients all the time with hearing loss and tinnitus, I send them for hearing exams and get a neat little sheet with a graph of their exam for each ear. Unless I have specifically requested it, they never go above 10khz, because nothing important (their definition, not mine) happens up there. Normal conversation all occurs below that frequency.

Everybody I have ever seen tested over 20 years old, including normal exams on people prior to new jobs, (I do a little occupational health), shows some hearing deficiency at some frequency and level. It varies from person to person, with the higher frequencies being lost first, then progressing down usually, but I have seen people with huge holes in the middle frequencies and normal hearing above 8khz, or almost no hearing at 1khz, but normal above 2khz.

I have always attibuted these anomalies to the different, various causes for hearing loss. I.E. sensorineural loss, conductive loss, etc.

My point is, we all have some loss. I'm 40, still hear the high whine of TV tubes, many oscillators, and other similar noises. My wife, at 38, can still hear a conversation across a crowded room, (it makes for interesting dinner conversation when she repeats the fight the couple across the restaurant is having!), but she often doesn't hear the pitches I complain about.

Sensitivity is very important, and some people are more sensitive to certain frequencies than others, (my wife hates low bass), even when hearing is otherwise normal. My wife has extraordinary sensitivity in the normal vocal range and down, in fact when tested, she could hear tones in that range at half the volume normally expected, but had normal hearing above 8khz, where I actually was slightly more sensitive than her.

The home tests are very rough estimates because the speakers/transducers used are suspect in their ability to actually produce the tone at a specific level, and because background noise is often at 40+ db. (I suspect I could hear 25khz if you turned it up loud enough, what IS the frequency of a jet turbine? But I'm not sure I want to!)

I always laugh when I read reviewers talk about the sensation of "air" a speaker produces when it is capable of going above 15khz or so. I wonder how many can actually hear up there after all the reviews they have done and all the overly amplified concerts that they write about hearing?

Oh well, enough soap box, except for this. If you hear well now, protect you hearing! Don't lose any more than you have to.

This reminds me, I was planning on having a friend check my hearing, need to give him a call.

Bill
 

Geoff L

Screenwriter
Joined
Dec 9, 2000
Messages
1,693
Real Name
Geoff
Bill:

Thank you for your much more in depth and informative read.

I have a question for you!
=======>
If using an SPL meter and running a test tone freq disc (sines) and holding the spl at 70db at any high freq your listen to, is this still pretty inaccurate as far as a poor mans way of in home ear testing?

Increasing the volume/spl, I would think I may be able to hear futher up, but I also would think the idea is to hold the volume/spl of the freq being tested "constant".
Now the RS-meter is not a very accurate device as you drop down into the lower midrange/midbass and bass area, but at higher freqs my understanding is it's pretty accurate.
This is what I was/am interested in testing, (the higher freqs) and how I found that at an spl level of 70db, after 13k I appear to be deaf.

Could you/would you, please elaborate on my primative in house speaker testing that turned into a high frequency hearing test.
In short could I be way off with what I can hear or is my method giving me a pretty good ballpark idea of whats happening with my (hearing on the high end)?


Thanx
Geoff
 

Ken Smith

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 20, 2001
Messages
100
We have hearing exams every 2 yrs. where I work. I looked at the results of my last test. The chart goes up to 8khz and gives me a rating of 10. Whatever that means.
The company also has a rule that if the sounds are above 85db hearing protection must be worn. Company officials have gone around with a sound meter and come up with all the danger zones and posted signs that hearing protection must be worn.
 

Tom_Mack

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Dec 11, 2000
Messages
233
I just went to the ENT for my Tinnitus last Thursday. He said that I have no hearing loss, but unfortunately the doctor said that the ringing in my head was an "enigma" to him right now. I'm going in for more testing this Thursday.

I never went to that many loud concerts (maybe 1 per year, the last one being Elton John, Billy Joel last February) and I generally listen to my HT about -20db under reference. I started to hear "background noise" in my HT room and bedroom when things were very quiet. I thought the noise was in the house until in December when I realized it was in my head. Since then the ringing has driven me nuts when it is quiet! I was watching Signs last night and I was distracted by the ringing during the quiet scenes.

I am hoping the testing on Thursday will find something, but I am not optimistic right nw.....
 

Christopher M

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Feb 24, 1999
Messages
88
Hows this for crazy:
My roommate plays bass, he says he'd rather lose his eyesite before his hearing.
I have no musical ability, I'd rather lose hearing before eyesite.

We go to a concert, guess which one of us is wearing ear plugs? Yep, ME, not him, he refuses. I went to my first two concerts in college, ever since I won't get close to the stage without ear plugs in. He's happy to just go and sit next to the speaker without though.

Murdock
 

Geoff L

Screenwriter
Joined
Dec 9, 2000
Messages
1,693
Real Name
Geoff
Ignorance is bliss..:)
Someday he will have wished he'd listened to whom seem, "much wiser now"...!
 

Bill W.

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Apr 9, 1999
Messages
77
The "in home Radio Shack sound meter test" is just a very rough approximation of hearing, but it is better than nothing.

We become less sensitive to higher frequencies as we age (in general). However, we are generally less sensitive to very low frequencies than we are to those in the vocal range, (it probably has something to do with our fears of predators, very few of whom have low frequency voices). That is why many people run their subs at +5 or +10 db, I suspect.

If everyone here is interested, I'll try to get a copy of a "normal" hearing test and then show how to intrepret it.

I may have to email it to someone to post it here, as I haven't ever been able to pull it off, (I suspect it is due to my very slow connection speed.)

Bill
 

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