[BlackbeardBen]

I don't trust any of these files online due to compression - it's much safer to go straight to Audacity and generate your own tones.
 
I did the test in a moderate (not quiet) listening environment; about 50-55 dB ambient noise, and with HD 600 headphones (about 12 dB rolloff from 15 kHz to 19 kHz) fed by a Behringer UCA-202 and an iBasso PB1.  In these conditions, I can just barely hear 17 kHz at a normal level (16 kHz is louder), can hear 18 kHz with a slight increase in level, and I max out at 19 kHz with a more significant elevated level.
 
I would like to do a ABX tests for the higher frequencies (against silence); and also do calibrated compensation for the rolloff of my headphones.  12 dB is a huge difference in system response.
 
Oh, and I'm Male and 25.  Also, I tested similarly two years ago.  I wear earplugs whenever I'm in uncomfortably loud venues or situations.

 

[tinyman392]

OK, for starters, I put down the wrong vote in the poll, it should be a yes (in a way, it's a yes, in another it's a no).  Let me explain why...  It was kind of cruel what I did, but it's more of a story, and curiosity that kicked in.  I was using my iPod Touch 2G at the time, and wanted to test out these dog whistle apps.  Now, my friend was also in the room and we were watching TV at the time.  I bumped the output to around 21k to see if my iPod could even produce the sound.  When I bumped it up that high, my friends dog moved his head up.  When I turned it off, it went back to laying down.  Eventually, I (think) I annoyed the dog   Whenever I did push the button, I did get this weird feeling.  I can't entirely call it a sound, but I was feeling something...  Now, that could easily be a placebo effect.  There was something that was a lot more interesting, my friend that was watching TV reacted to the whistle...  Whenever I turned it on (mind you it's at 21k at the moment), his head turned my direction, then he looked around the room.  I turned it off and he watched TV again.  Some time later, I turned it on again...  Same reaction.  I turned it off.  The third time I switched it on and off, he actually told me, "I'm hearing something, but not hearing it, it's weird".  I continued to act like I wasn't doing anything (like I had no idea what was going on cruel I know...).  After the 5/6th time, I started getting a headache and stopped.  I eventually did tell him what I was doing.  It was just interesting to see him react to something he theoretically shouldn't hear.

 

[Parall3l]

There was a research where humans responded to 40khz sounds before. I'll try to find it.

 

[Deathdeisel]

I hear right at 21khz, and with 22 it kicks in an out i think, but id say regularly 21.  Age: 18, male, and i could hear 21 with my computer sitting next to me over my brother playing skyrim across the house. 

 

[BlackbeardBen]

Quote:

OK, for starters, I put down the wrong vote in the poll, it should be a yes (in a way, it's a yes, in another it's a no).  Let me explain why...  It was kind of cruel what I did, but it's more of a story, and curiosity that kicked in.  I was using my iPod Touch 2G at the time, and wanted to test out these dog whistle apps.  Now, my friend was also in the room and we were watching TV at the time.  I bumped the output to around 21k to see if my iPod could even produce the sound.  When I bumped it up that high, my friends dog moved his head up.  When I turned it off, it went back to laying down.  Eventually, I (think) I annoyed the dog   Whenever I did push the button, I did get this weird feeling.  I can't entirely call it a sound, but I was feeling something...  Now, that could easily be a placebo effect.  There was something that was a lot more interesting, my friend that was watching TV reacted to the whistle...  Whenever I turned it on (mind you it's at 21k at the moment), his head turned my direction, then he looked around the room.  I turned it off and he watched TV again.  Some time later, I turned it on again...  Same reaction.  I turned it off.  The third time I switched it on and off, he actually told me, "I'm hearing something, but not hearing it, it's weird".  I continued to act like I wasn't doing anything (like I had no idea what was going on cruel I know...).  After the 5/6th time, I started getting a headache and stopped.  I eventually did tell him what I was doing.  It was just interesting to see him react to something he theoretically shouldn't hear.

I agree, I get that sensation with high frequencies just below the intensity of audibility.  That's why I suggested blind testing - it wouldn't be hard to do in Foobar.
 


Quote:

There was a research where humans responded to 40khz sounds before. I'll try to find it.

That's the Ooashi study.  Unfortunately, it suffered from intermodulation distortion products in the audible range, so no, it wasn't humans perceiving ultrasonic frequencies.

 

[Austin Morrow]

Male, 16.

Can hear from 18 kHz to 20 kHz. I'm guessing that's pretty decent?

 

[Parall3l]

Quote:

That's the Ooashi study.  Unfortunately, it suffered from intermodulation distortion products in the audible range, so no, it wasn't humans perceiving ultrasonic frequencies.

There was also something done by Professor Kunchur or something.

 

[anetode]

Male 28, 17-19khz range based on past testing. I can hear 20 on the mosquitoringtones link, likely because of the compression artifacts. It was worth it to test through my loudspeakers, if only to see my cats flip out.

 

[Parall3l]

Male 15, can hear 18.5khz

 

[Mischa23v]

[size=10pt]Sure thing: dell xps 17 + Trends Audio UD-10.1 USB Converter + Anthem D2 A/V+ Axiom A1400-8 + Mythos ST System 5.1 surround. (That's what I used for both tests). I tried 2 YouTube sites going up to 22khz and adobe audition. I thought of using my JH 16's or LOD-2 but jh 16's only go up to 20khz and I wasn't sure how high of frequency my fiancé LOD-2 supports.[/size]

 
Quote:

Can you name your rig components please

 

 

[Mischa23v]

[size=medium]I’m probably at 21KHZ, because I had trouble hearing 22khz and my ears were actually bothering me after. But, this might explain why: "with women typically having a higher sensitivity to higher frequencies than men." WIKIPEDIA Hearing range[/size]

 

[devouringone3]

I did the test on mosquitos ringtones test in front of my class in a psychoacoustical class oral expose (at the end of it, as an extra) when I was 19 years old.
 
We were in a new building and the acoustics of the room were top notch; the speaker system was also brand new and sounded good enough with music. I asked the people to raise their hands and to put it down when they would judge they weren't hearing anything anymore. Most of my classmates were girls, from 19 to 57 years old. I was the first to lower my hand and I felt very bad, viscerally insulted, on that very instant when I nervously giggled. Now I am 22 and the results are the same: I can only hear up to 17 kHz on normal listening volume. The 57 year old lady lowered her hand at 18 kHz, the big majority of the class at 20 kHz, there were four girl's hands remaining at 21 kHz, and only the very youngest of our class could hear the 22 kHz one, she was also 18 about to turn 19.
 
You guys need to consider something, the AVERAGE human hearing audition is 20 to 20k Hz for a NEWBORN. Anything above 20 kHz is considered above average and from the moment the newborn starts hearing the human voice, most importantly the voice of it's mother (which he can differentiate and prefer over the voice of three other women because he can recognize his mother's voice from how he heard it from the inside) the hair cells for the highest frequencies begins to rigidify and cease functionnality. We all loose those useless higher frequencies (only considered useful are the 250 to 4000 Hz for the conversation range (and those are the main frequencies used in music too), and only 125 to 8000 are measured in audiology), and at 18 years the same 20 kHz average has gone down to 12 kHz. All those numbers we see on YouTube and mosquito ringtones are inflated when we compare them to the scientifically proven audiological facts I just quoted you, those are from serious studies. Deafness is described in terms of acuteness of the loss on all of the freq. spectrum and how it impedes you to discriminate words. Average -90 dBHL from 125 to 8000 is severely acute and considered profound deafness (when external hearing aids (not a cochlear implant) can't help you), -75 is severe (you need some powerful hearing aids or an implant), -55 for your best ear is enough to get you free assistive listening devices (bed shaking alarm clock, phone transcripters, flashing light door ringer and fire detecter, etc.) from the Canadian government and this represents a bad case of presbyacusis, and finally, -25 dBHL is enough for free hearing aids and that is when you speak to your grand-father that often asks you to repeat and speak louder, it is part of the normal aging. Strictly speaking we never loose the frequencies near 12 kHz, we only need higher volume to hear them, as we do for all other frequencies as we age.
 
Those highest frequencies are of course the first one you loose when you work all your life in a noisy factory or something like that.
 
Why I think I was the worst performer of my class in my test was that I listened to music on my Sony minidisc player in the school bus for three full high-school years straight (from 12 to 14 years old), using the non-specially-isolating Sony MDR-E808 (without the foam pads) that came with the player, in a highly noisy environnement, and I did that one hour (2x30 minutes) a day, at 21/25 (while there was a volume safety lock option to block it at 22 maximum, level past which was considered dangerous I guess), while 10/25 plainly sufficed in calmer environnements. In those environnement 21/25 wasn't comfortable at all and it was fatiguing. And I was fatigued too when I came back from school during those years. Contrastively I always felt good during the two last high-school years where I didn't listen to music in the bus. It ruined my life forever.
 
J/k... I have one year of courses of an Audiology bachelor's degree followed at the University of Montréal (that I abandoned) now I pay the utmost attention and care for my hearing. I've gotten aware of the more dangerous situations when the air is acoustically polluted and satured, or when loud impact noise are being heard. I always carry plugs to counter those situations. I have lowered my casual listening volume in silence on my Creative Zen Vision: M from 13 to 10 and I feel like I can hear the music just as good. I think I have become more sensible for the frequencies that I had left and now I find concerts and discotheques environement highly discomfortable without plugs. What I do is I go at the bathrooms and put rolled up paper toilet sheets inside my ears, it does the job and I'm back to having fun; the next day all the friends that were with me at the event hear tinnitus-like ringing in silence and not me... I don't plan on hearing those ever again.

 

[RexAeterna]

no human can hear above 20khz. age has nothing to do with it. only reason why people lose their hearing more when they get older is from being a complete moron and don't know how to watch the volume knob on their hip ipod or stereo system. audio gear might be able to reach ultrasonic frequencies(or claim to) but human hearing is limited to 20khz,period. if you can hear above 20khz then either your not human and should be sent to area 51 for testing or cause your equipment is producing good amount of harmonic distortion. it can even be the codecs in the software or even the audio browser. don't trust these test tones at all you see online. if you really want to know how you do,do schedule an appointment with an audiologist and get your hearing checked the correct way with proper equipment, and i bet you all these hearing claims will be gone out the windows and most of you even barely hear above 16khz.

also lets mention headphones as well. headphones can not and i repeat can not reach 20khz. there is a few that are relativity flat up to around 20khz but most headphones are not tuned that way anymore to make up for bad piercing modern recordings. we have what's called ''modern highs''. what that is the headphone or speaker gently starts to roll-off at after 10khz and just completely drops around after 14k(around the air frequencies). yea some might cause slight peak to give an impression of more ''air'' but that's bout it. very few headphones are even close to being flat in the top-end and past air frequencies. it's a rarity.bottom line don't trust these test tones and get your hearing check the right way is all i'm saying.

 

[devouringone3]

Yep.

 

[Mischa23v]

average human hearing is 20hz to 20khz, max human hearing in test subjects is 23khz according to 1000 test sample isu did. feel free to check their website for proof.
 
also other interesting facts on their website:
 
 

dog	67-45,000
cat	45-64,000
cow	23-35,000
horse	55-33,500
sheep	100-30,000
rabbit	360-42,000
rat	200-76,000
mouse	1,000-91,000
gerbil	100-60,000
guinea pig	54-50,000
hedgehog	250-45,000
raccoon	100-40,000
ferret	16-44,000
opossum	500-64,000
chinchilla	90-22,800
bat	2,000-110,000
beluga whale	1,000-123,000
elephant	16-12,000
porpoise	75-150,000
goldfish	20-3,000
catfish	50-4,000
tuna	50-1,100
bullfrog	100-3,000
tree frog	50-4,000
canary	250-8,000
parakeet	200-8,500
cockatiel	250-8,000
owl	200-12,000
chicken	125-2,000

 
Quote:

no human can hear above 20khz. age has nothing to do with it. only reason why people lose their hearing more when they get older is from being a complete moron and don't know how to watch the volume knob on their hip ipod or stereo system. audio gear might be able to reach ultrasonic frequencies(or claim to) but human hearing is limited to 20khz,period. if you can hear above 20khz then either your not human and should be sent to area 51 for testing or cause your equipment is producing good amount of harmonic distortion. it can even be the codecs in the software or even the audio browser. don't trust these test tones at all you see online. if you really want to know how you do,do schedule an appointment with an audiologist and get your hearing checked the correct way with proper equipment, and i bet you all these hearing claims will be gone out the windows and most of you even barely hear above 16khz.
also lets mention headphones as well. headphones can not and i repeat can not reach 20khz. there is a few that are relativity flat up to around 20khz but most headphones are not tuned that way anymore to make up for bad piercing modern recordings. we have what's called ''modern highs''. what that is the headphone or speaker gently starts to roll-off at after 10khz and just completely drops around after 14k(around the air frequencies). yea some might cause slight peak to give an impression of more ''air'' but that's bout it. very few headphones are even close to being flat in the top-end and past air frequencies. it's a rarity.bottom line don't trust these test tones and get your hearing check the right way is all i'm saying.