Poll: Can you hear sound over 20kHz? - Page 13

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot 


No, unlucky you. There's nothing much up there in music to hear. All you get is high frequency headaches from flourescent light ballasts squealing.

sad truth
 

Sadly, only up to 15kHz at normal listening levels for me, and I'm still young.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot 

People don't seem to understand what these numbers mean. 10kHz to 20 kHz is one octave... The same as the difference between 20Hz and 40Hz. Most music is below 10kHz. If you "only" hear up to 15kHz, you are just missing three notes at the very edge of normal human hearing. And the only sound you're missing is second and third level harmonics on cymbal crashes which is a very low volume compared to the fundamental sound you can hear.

Oh, I see. That makes me feel better. I come into this thread with everyone hearing upwards of 18-20 kHz and feel left in the dark for hearing much lower. I suspected that most information we hear is significantly below those levels, but wasn't sure if there was any significance to hearing "less than" everyone else (aka normal/average human hearing). Guess, I start basing facts of numbers rather than actuality. So, thanks for clarifying.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot 

People don't seem to understand what these numbers mean. 10kHz to 20 kHz is one octave... The same as the difference between 20Hz and 40Hz. Most music is below 10kHz. If you "only" hear up to 15kHz, you are just missing three notes at the very edge of normal human hearing. And the only sound you're missing is second and third level harmonics on cymbal crashes which is a very low volume compared to the fundamental sound you can hear.

Many instruments produce harmonics louder than the fundamental, including the cymbals sometimes (frequently?).

I do agree with you. Using audacity on a few clear and simple solo acoustic tracks, I didn't find any peaks above 15kHz that were significantly less than 15 dB below anything else. Although I will note that there were moments where the dominant frequencies were in the 10-13 kHz range.

Doesn't mean we can't enjoy our old recordings. Looking at some of mine, where everything above 4 kHz is buried in noise, all the fundamentals are there so I can still appreciate the music. Admittedly, not the stuff I'd use for background listening.

Hmm, I can hear up to 22500Hz. Can't hear anything with 23000hz. 

18/M/~23.5 kHz as tested with a tone generator courtesy of my high school's physics department. I'm curious as to whether or not it's deteriorated in the year since the measurement.

It's almost ominous, gradually losing track of your sensory perception as you age...

It' a fair trade off because you get a lot smarter as you age.

Erm, well unfortunately that isn't an universal trend. Some stay as dumb, and others get even dumber. And mass media, consumerism and other brainwashing sources don't seem to be helping.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot 

It' a fair trade off because you get a lot smarter as you age.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot 

I suspect a lot of people claiming to hear these high frequencies are just turning up the volume until they feel the pressure of sound outside their range of hearing. People seem to think frequency extension is important. It isn't. Balance in the middle is much more important.

I think we all have good ear response on the middle, why would it be otherwise? And the satisfaction of hearing high frequencies is that you know your ears were well cared

I started listening to the test tones with my LCD2's and couldn't hear anything above 18kHz, apart from an uncomfortable, almost painful, feeling of pressure in my ears. Then I tried with my HD650's from 15kHz and the first thing that hit me was the volume level - I had to turn it down significantly because the sound was almost painful (I only listen to loud music if it's something like a rock concert).

With the HD650's and a lower volume I could hear up to 19kHz. Thinking that the volume may have caused the painful pressure I experienced at the highest frequency's with the LCD2's, I put them on again and with a lower volume I definitely heard the brief 22kHz sound, and this time there was no discomfort.

Going down and back up the frequency scale a few times definitely helped me "learn" how to hear the highest frequencies.

Edit: Obviously I know the relative volume settings needed when swapping between my HD650's and LCD2's, so that wasn't an issue.

I tried a couple of different ones on my T1s, game over at about 17-18kHz... I'm past the 40 barrier though, so I think it's not too shabby...