Can you hear above 20khz? Test files included.

[yepimonfire]

Messing around with a tone generator, I decided to see just how high my hearing went. I started at 18khz, which was easily audible even at low volumes, at 20khz, i could still easily hear the tone, though I did need a slightly higher volume. At 21khz, at a volume level of 80db, I could still hear the tone clearly. The highest I got before I could no longer hear was 21500hz, which was about as audible as 20khz. 22000hz, at any volume level was completely inaudible. My speakers play pretty cleanly up to about 24khz before breaking up.

here is a 21000hz, 21000, and 20500hz test file. I set the sampling rate to 48khz, since in my experience, some DACs start exhibiting distortion which would skew the test at 19khz with a 44.1khz sample rate. Make sure you set your sound cards sample rate to 48khz, otherwise you will experiencing aliasing. https://www.dropbox.com/s/45diice722dfhr9/Sine_21500.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bllb765y3bbk8s9/Sine_21000.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4bdj1ugjayb8gd3/Sine_20500.wav?dl=0

I'm in my early 20s, and have been careful not to do anything to damage my hearing (always worn ear protectors when shooting, never attend live concerts, always listen to music below 85dbA, and work in a quiet job where the most annoying noise comes from the repeating same 10 songs played over the pa )many older guys on here with mild hearing loss will probably struggle to hear above 16khz, and therefore won't even be able to hear the 20khz file.

 

[Speedskater]

It's hard to do a good high frequency hearing test. Because cone break-up, Intermodulation Distortion or background noise can give the wrong results.

But in the end, when listening to music it just doesn't matter.

 

[killdozzer]

Messing around with a tone generator, I decided to see just how high my hearing went. I started at 18khz, which was easily audible even at low volumes, at 20khz, i could still easily hear the tone, though I did need a slightly higher volume. At 21khz, at a volume level of 80db, I could still hear the tone clearly. The highest I got before I could no longer hear was 21500hz, which was about as audible as 20khz. 22000hz, at any volume level was completely inaudible. My speakers play pretty cleanly up to about 24khz before breaking up.

here is a 21000hz, 21000, and 20500hz test file. I set the sampling rate to 48khz, since in my experience, some DACs start exhibiting distortion which would skew the test at 19khz with a 44.1khz sample rate. Make sure you set your sound cards sample rate to 48khz, otherwise you will experiencing aliasing. https://www.dropbox.com/s/45diice722dfhr9/Sine_21500.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bllb765y3bbk8s9/Sine_21000.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4bdj1ugjayb8gd3/Sine_20500.wav?dl=0

I'm in my early 20s, and have been careful not to do anything to damage my hearing (always worn ear protectors when shooting, never attend live concerts, always listen to music below 85dbA, and work in a quiet job where the most annoying noise comes from the repeating same 10 songs played over the pa )many older guys on here with mild hearing loss will probably struggle to hear above 16khz, and therefore won't even be able to hear the 20khz file.

Please, tell me one thing, if you were to gently place the tip of your finger on the tweeter cone while playing 22000Hz, could you feel the trembling even if you don't hear it?

 

[gene]

Messing around with a tone generator, I decided to see just how high my hearing went. I started at 18khz, which was easily audible even at low volumes, at 20khz, i could still easily hear the tone, though I did need a slightly higher volume. At 21khz, at a volume level of 80db, I could still hear the tone clearly. The highest I got before I could no longer hear was 21500hz, which was about as audible as 20khz. 22000hz, at any volume level was completely inaudible. My speakers play pretty cleanly up to about 24khz before breaking up.

here is a 21000hz, 21000, and 20500hz test file. I set the sampling rate to 48khz, since in my experience, some DACs start exhibiting distortion which would skew the test at 19khz with a 44.1khz sample rate. Make sure you set your sound cards sample rate to 48khz, otherwise you will experiencing aliasing. https://www.dropbox.com/s/45diice722dfhr9/Sine_21500.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bllb765y3bbk8s9/Sine_21000.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4bdj1ugjayb8gd3/Sine_20500.wav?dl=0

I'm in my early 20s, and have been careful not to do anything to damage my hearing (always worn ear protectors when shooting, never attend live concerts, always listen to music below 85dbA, and work in a quiet job where the most annoying noise comes from the repeating same 10 songs played over the pa )many older guys on here with mild hearing loss will probably struggle to hear above 16khz, and therefore won't even be able to hear the 20khz file.

I hate you

 

[Steve Mac]

My hearing was great when I was in my 20's, Now that I'm in my 60's, not so much. Still, I can hear differences in detail, even at lower frequencies which still makes me spend more than my wife thinks I should!

 

[TheWarrior]

@yepimonfire You might really enjoy this program:
http://harmanhowtolisten.blogspot.com

Along with an audiogram by a doctor, this was the requisite training for their listening tests. Using just my laptop speakers I was able to get in to L4 or L5 for brief periods. Bass tests were easier because I could feel the chassis vibrate.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Just be very careful with volume/power into tweeters. I burned up a tweeter doing just such a test.

 

[yepimonfire]

Just be very careful with volume/power into tweeters. I burned up a tweeter doing just such a test.

What did you do exactly.


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[KEW]

What did you do exactly.


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I'd bet he was turning it up so he could hear it!

Honestly, I played with these once and that is how I would have blown mine. Fortunately, I had read a caution about damaging your hearing by playing inaudible high frequencies too loud (apparently it can still damage the ears), but my instinct was that the signal was too weak!
Also my daughter asked me to please stop doing whatever I was doing to make those horrid sounds!

The tiny speakers in our phones are pretty good at reproducing these high pitches!
Here is a fun site to check out!
http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/

 

[yepimonfire]

I'd bet he was turning it up so he could hear it!

Honestly, I played with these once and that is how I would have blown mine. Fortunately, I had read a caution about damaging your hearing by playing inaudible high frequencies too loud (apparently it can still damage the ears), but my instinct was that the signal was too weak!
Also my daughter asked me to please stop doing whatever I was doing to make those horrid sounds!

The tiny speakers in our phones are pretty good at reproducing these high pitches!
Here is a fun site to check out!
http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/

I actually didn’t have it that loud, 60 on my receiver, which would be about 85dB.


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[mtrycrafts]

What did you do exactly.


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Yep, kept turning it up when I couldn't hear it anymore. I guess the fan in the amp should have given the clue. No more such experiments.
Good think it was only one speaker.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

Pretty easy to burn up a tweeter with sine waves at High Frequency. It's one reason why most professional audiology research is limited to a HF limit of 8 KHz (which makes many of the questions audio people want answered unavailable by reading the current peer reviewed literature).

I have reasonably good HF hearing, especially considering the time I've spent at concerts, working live acts, and my years in the hobby. For someone who is almost 60, 17.5 KHz is pretty good.

Personally, I am not so much interested in the steady state HF hearing response of myself and others; I am keenly interested, however in questions of our brain's ability to sense brief transients or extremely fast rise times, both of which can be the equivalent of a signal with a frequency above 20 KHz, but not in a steady state.

 

[Pogre]

I put my earbuds in and cranked the 20.5 kilohertz signal. I couldn't hear anything.

 

[KEW]

I put my earbuds in and cranked the 20.5 kilohertz signal. I couldn't hear anything.

You'd be a freak (in a good way) if you could!
The Mosquito ringtones site I linked offers the follow age vs hearing info (I would not consider it authoritative info, but is still good enough to muse over)

Frequency
Age Range
Play / Download

8khz
Everyone

10khz
60 & Younger

12khz
50 & Younger

14khz
49 & Younger

15khz
39 & Younger

16khz
30 & Younger

17khz
24 & Younger

17.4khz
24 & Younger

18khz
24 & Younger

19khz
24 & Younger

20khz
18 & Younger

21khz
18 & Younger

22khz
18 & Younger

 

[Pogre]

You'd be a freak (in a good way) if you could!
The Mosquito ringtones site I linked offers the follow age vs hearing info (I would not consider it authoritative info, but is still good enough to muse over)

I'm skeered...

I'll check that out here in a bit. I haven't been in for a hearing test in a long, long, long time. I have tinnitus, but don't know how much it affects my hearing.

 

[NINaudio]

Last time I checked I couldn't hear anything over 16 kHz. Even without exposure to concerts or loud working environments it is still just a biological side effect of aging.

 

[yepimonfire]

Pretty easy to burn up a tweeter with sine waves at High Frequency. It's one reason why most professional audiology research is limited to a HF limit of 8 KHz (which makes many of the questions audio people want answered unavailable by reading the current peer reviewed literature).

I have reasonably good HF hearing, especially considering the time I've spent at concerts, working live acts, and my years in the hobby. For someone who is almost 60, 17.5 KHz is pretty good.

Personally, I am not so much interested in the steady state HF hearing response of myself and others; I am keenly interested, however in questions of our brain's ability to sense brief transients or extremely fast rise times, both of which can be the equivalent of a signal with a frequency above 20 KHz, but not in a steady state.

That’s something that interests me too. I did an abx test of some high res files (note that I have always been a skeptic on whether there’s benefits to them) and managed to successfully differentiate between the two, the “tightness” of the snare drum and cymbals gave it away, the standard res sounded smeared in comparison. I think it has more to do with the time domain rather than frequency. Humans can resolve temporal differences as short as 6 microseconds, which requires a minimum sampling rate of 166khz. It also requires a speaker capable of an impulse response that fast.

17.5khz is great for your age. You can rest assured you’re not missing anything musical, as most of the harmonics drop off past 16khz (though they often continue up as high as 50khz, but again, that’s more transient information than audible tone)


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[yepimonfire]

You'd be a freak (in a good way) if you could!
The Mosquito ringtones site I linked offers the follow age vs hearing info (I would not consider it authoritative info, but is still good enough to muse over)

I can’t hear the 22khz, but the 21khz is easily audible to me. Some of it is age, like the loss of the ability to hear above 16khz, but loss of hearing down to something like 10khz is caused by hearing damage. Age related hearing loss is mostly a myth, it’s just older folks have accumulated hearing damage.


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[yepimonfire]

I'm skeered...

I'll check that out here in a bit. I haven't been in for a hearing test in a long, long, long time. I have tinnitus, but don't know how much it affects my hearing.

Tinnitus is indicative of damage to the hairs responsible for the particular frequency of the “ringing”.


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[yepimonfire]

Yep, kept turning it up when I couldn't hear it anymore. I guess the fan in the amp should have given the clue. No more such experiments.
Good think it was only one speaker.

How loud did you turn it? I think I’m lucky in that the tweeters in my speakers are horn loaded, and likely have a sensitivity approaching 105dB. A regular tweeter might easily burn up though. Even though the volume was only high enough at 85dB 9’ away, that’s about 92dB at 1m, give or take. Tweeters usually can only handle about 10w. Most music and movie content has very little sound power at very high frequencies, as most of it is concentrated in the mid bass and midrange.


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