Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › Feeling high frequencies?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Feeling high frequencies?

post #1 of 3
9/2/11 at 9:05am
Thread Starter 

I was listening to my subwoofer when I wondered a couple questions that I could not find on google:

 

1.  Why can I feel low frequencies but not higher ones?  If somebody puts on a sound at 30000 hertz is it possible to feel it?

 

2.  Does it take more volume at lower frequencies than higher frequencies to damage your ears?

 

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks. 

 

 

Reply
post #2 of 3
9/2/11 at 9:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by chillerman625 View Post

I was listening to my subwoofer when I wondered a couple questions that I could not find on google:

 

1.  Why can I feel low frequencies but not higher ones?  If somebody puts on a sound at 30000 hertz is it possible to feel it?

Low freq creates a long pressure wave in the air, enough for the tactile sensor under the skin to pick it up. Higher freq creates much shorter wave, too short to pick up by human tactile sensor. That is why human has tiny hair-like sensor in the ear to detect that kind of fast vibration, to a limit of course (<20kHz for adult). The only way for human to 'feel' 30kHz is to put a lot of volume into it, probably enough to kill you in an instant so it really doesn't matter if you can feel it or not.

 

2.  Does it take more volume at lower frequencies than higher frequencies to damage your ears?

Generally volume is calculated in total, but our hearing receptors are working on different principle on low and high freq. For low freq, it is the whole eardrum that pickup the vibration. For high freq, it is those tiny hair-like sensor on the back of the eardrum. So structurally speaking, the whole eardrum is a stronger structure than the tiny sensor, and make it more tolerable to volume. That is why when hearing damage happens, it usually is the high freq that is gone first.

 

 

 



 


Edited by ClieOS - 9/2/11 at 9:25am
Reply
post #3 of 3
9/4/11 at 7:19pm

Longer the wave, the easier it is to travel through solid materials.  You're feeling the reverberations coming through the ground most likely.  If it's long enough and you're in front of a full sized woofer, you'll feel the air pressure caused by the low frequency really easily, enough to blast your hair back-- and probably lose your hearing not too long after!

 

The amount of spl it would take to get a good feeling of viscceral impact from a high frequency tone would probably more than just kill you instantly!  Who knows though, producing SPL that high sounds impossible.

Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Computer Audio
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › Feeling high frequencies?