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Are there any other young head-fi'ers among you who can't hear above ~16 kHz?

post #1 of 57
1/12/10 at 6:37pm
Thread Starter 
Ok, I am feeling sort of depressed right now. I am only 21, but I can hardly hear past ~16 kHz. To be precise, my hearing begins to roll off at ~15 kHz in my left and ~15.5 kHz in my right ear. If I turn the volume up a lot, I can hear up to ~17-17.5 kHz, but at normal volumes 16 kHz is roughly my limit. I am guilty of spending about 2 years listening through cheap earbuds at high volumes so I think that's what probably ******* my ears up. I hardly ever listened to music until ~3 years ago. I did a hearing test recently and the doc said that my hearing is excellent, but that's only in the 500 Hz- 8kHz range. So I am just wondering - are there any other young guys among you who have tin ears and how do you feel about it? Personally, I feel handicapped.
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post #2 of 57
1/12/10 at 6:46pm
ouch, 29 and mine as best as i can gather dies about 22khz. (in the relm of how much is me and how much is equip not designed to go there)
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post #3 of 57
1/12/10 at 8:57pm
I can hear up to and including 18kHz...but not beyond at medium volume. 18kHz is barely audible...but I can hear the minuscule pitch. I'm definitely not a loud listener or go to bars w/ loud speakers banging my eardrums like some of my buddies do. But my recent habit might change all that.
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post #4 of 57
1/12/10 at 9:02pm
i am 20 and have all the way up to 18k in both ears much higher in my left.
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post #5 of 57
1/12/10 at 9:46pm
I am 17 and I can hear up to 18, I think maybe 19. If I keep going to shows that'll change though
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post #6 of 57
1/12/10 at 10:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mark2410 View Post
ouch, 29 and mine as best as i can gather dies about 22khz. (in the relm of how much is me and how much is equip not designed to go there)
I didn't think was physically possible? You must be some sort of superhuman lol.

24 here and I can only get up to about 16 khz. I have taken pretty good care of my hearing too; no loud earbuds, sound dampening at the crazy shows I go to and everything. Not much you can do it depends on each person and how the ear degrades sometimes.
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post #7 of 57
1/12/10 at 10:28pm
21 and can't hear past 16k. Hooray for being ignorant at concerts and clubs.
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post #8 of 57
1/12/10 at 10:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pianist View Post
Ok, I am feeling sort of depressed right now. I am only 21, but I can hardly hear past ~16 kHz. To be precise, my hearing begins to roll off at ~15 kHz in my left and ~15.5 kHz in my right ear. If I turn the volume up a lot, I can hear up to ~17-17.5 kHz, but at normal volumes 16 kHz is roughly my limit. I am guilty of spending about 2 years listening through cheap earbuds at high volumes so I think that's what probably ******* my ears up. I hardly ever listened to music until ~3 years ago. I did a hearing test recently and the doc said that my hearing is excellent, but that's only in the 500 Hz- 8kHz range. So I am just wondering - are there any other young guys among you who have tin ears and how do you feel about it? Personally, I feel handicapped.
Here's some protips: 16khz+ is useless.
I can't hear above 16 on bad days but I can hear up to 18 on good days (was deaf at five and had surgery so I am not complaining).

16khz+ is almost exclusively harmonic range (we're talking something in the range of 5th++++++ harmonics for most things). It does nothing for music.

There's no reason to feel handicapped, being an audiophile is about being an arrogant **** and having good listening skills, not about being able to hear to 20khz. (If you want proof of the first point, just wait for the spade of people coming in to brag how they can hear to 18+ when you asked "does anyone here have bad hearing in higher frequencies", not "hey can you come and make me feel bad"). There are members here with severe unilateral hearing loss, so you are not alone. I have some unilateral hearing loss (left ear is better than the right by a bit)

For what it's worth OP, on some of my equipment I cannot hear about 15khz (despite the gear being advertised as going higher). You should get professional testing done, as they have gear that is designed for testing hearing. Testing at home isnt reliable at all.

Comparing hearing ranges is like comparing dick size; those who care less about it (hearing range) are out there getting laid (enjoying music), whilst the others fail to leave their bedrooms at night.

Put it this way OP, you are far from alone.
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post #9 of 57
1/12/10 at 10:33pm
I'm 24 and I'm sitting at about 19, or that was my last visit. I played rock music at stupidly loud shows for years, but almost always wore plugs, I think they saved me.
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post #10 of 57
1/12/10 at 11:32pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mark2410 View Post
ouch, 29 and mine as best as i can gather dies about 22khz. (in the relm of how much is me and how much is equip not designed to go there)
Sorry, I don't think that is possible.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MomijiTMO View Post
21 and can't hear past 16k. Hooray for being ignorant at concerts and clubs.
Sorry if I misunderstood. You mean you can't, right? Personally, I have never been to loud concerts in my life and at loud jobs I always wear earplugs. I guess I was just born with mediocre hearing ability. I also have bad eyesight BTW - my right eye is farsighted and has ~16/20 while my left is nearsighted and has like 6/20 lol. I was born a bit premature and was also accidentally dropped as a baby. Bad karma I guess.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrGreen View Post
Here's some protips: 16khz+ is useless.
I can't hear above 16 on bad days but I can hear up to 18 on good days (was deaf at five and had surgery so I am not complaining).

16khz+ is almost exclusively harmonic range (we're talking something in the range of 5th++++++ harmonics for most things). It does nothing for music.

There's no reason to feel handicapped, being an audiophile is about being an arrogant **** and having good listening skills, not about being able to hear to 20khz. (If you want proof of the first point, just wait for the spade of people coming in to brag how they can hear to 18+ when you asked "does anyone here have bad hearing in higher frequencies", not "hey can you come and make me feel bad"). There are members here with severe unilateral hearing loss, so you are not alone. I have some unilateral hearing loss (left ear is better than the right by a bit)

For what it's worth OP, on some of my equipment I cannot hear about 15khz (despite the gear being advertised as going higher). You should get professional testing done, as they have gear that is designed for testing hearing. Testing at home isnt reliable at all.

Comparing hearing ranges is like comparing dick size; those who care less about it (hearing range) are out there getting laid (enjoying music), whilst the others fail to leave their bedrooms at night.

Put it this way OP, you are far from alone.
Thanks for your support Mr. Green. Like I mentioned, I did test my hearing professionally. The audiologist told me that I have almost perfect hearing in the 500Hz - 8kHz in both ears, but I know my left is definitely worse - I think I got some loss around 6 kHz and 13 kHz in my left ear that probably wasn't detected during the test.

Quote:
Originally Posted by smrtby123 View Post
24 here and I can only get up to about 16 khz. I have taken pretty good care of my hearing too; no loud earbuds, sound dampening at the crazy shows I go to and everything. Not much you can do it depends on each person and how the ear degrades sometimes.
Same situation here. Do you hear any differences between your right and left ear BTW? I got some unilateral loss too in my left. I can only detect that if I listen to music through my left ear only and then compare with my right on the same channel.
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post #11 of 57
1/13/10 at 12:09am
Haven't been tested by audiologist , but I like this place for testing - Equal loudness contours and audiometry - Test your own hearing . I still hear some faint sound using my amps normal listening level @ 16 hz and -36 db at that chart.
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post #12 of 57
1/13/10 at 12:38am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by argentum View Post
Haven't been tested by audiologist , but I like this place for testing - Equal loudness contours and audiometry - Test your own hearing . I still hear some faint sound using my amps normal listening level @ 16 hz and -36 db at that chart.
I like that webpage too. According to that chart, both of my ear have roughly the same hearing ability (although that's not really true - my left is certainly worse), except that at 16 kHz, my left is already ~20 db down from normal. My right is about ~10db down, but I can still hear it a little at low volumes with my right, while with my left, I have to turn it up to medium to be able to hear 16 kHz. I remember 3 years ago I think I used to be able to hear 16.5 kHz fairly easily and even 17 kHz reasonably well. Not anymore though. My left ear especially has gotten worse over the past couple of years.
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post #13 of 57
1/13/10 at 2:27am
18 atm, and limited at round 18.5khz, tho lately been getting quite a bit of tinnitus, prolly cause of my better buds dying out, and having to resort to the cheap stuff
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post #14 of 57
1/13/10 at 2:35am
Just so you know, ibuds can easily match a gig for volume. You probably spent much longer blasting your ears than I've spend at concerts/clubs. That is assuming you meant high volumes as in, "Oh hai guyz, you can hear my music 2 meters away ON THE BUS". I find 90% of kids are like this.

I had ear issues as a kid until I got grommets inserted in my ears to drain the fluid. It was amazing/terrifying coming out of the hospital to hear all the noise. Fun fun.
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post #15 of 57
1/13/10 at 3:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MomijiTMO View Post
I had ear issues as a kid until I got grommets inserted in my ears to drain the fluid. It was amazing/terrifying coming out of the hospital to hear all the noise. Fun fun.
Glue ear?
That stuff is pretty common in young kids and often results in uncessary surgery. I had other complications along with it that resulted in permenant damage.
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