Headphone Frequency Range

[fordgtlover]

20Khz is a pretty high frequency. My understanding of this issue is that the average person can't actually hear to 20Khz at all. Maybe the average teenager can. High frequency hearing degrades quite quickly with age. The following text indicates that in 1940 the average 20 year old could only hear to 16Khz.

The other issue relates to a theory called PsychoAccoustics. The thinking is that our brain somehow knows when high frequencies are missing from music even though we can't conciously detect the frequency. I did some reading on this meany years ago. I can't remember too many details. Anyone?

Sennheiser HD650s have a Frequency Response of 10 - 39,500 Hz. Why? Nobody can actually hear that high, but people swear that they can hear if the frequency response is reduced. Maybe ther really is something to PsychoAccoustics.



http://www.smeter.net/daily-facts/12/fact11.php
Quote:

The average hearing characteristics of a large number of people were first determined by testing volunteers at a World's Fair. The results where published in the October, 1940, issue of Bell Systems Technical Journal. It was learned from those tests that the average 20-year-old can hear frequencies between 20 and 16,000 Hz and that their greatest sensitivity is in the range from 1,000 to 5,000 Hz. It also was learned that 20-year-olds can hear sounds over the very large intensity range of 105 dB at 1,000 Hz, 110 dB at 2,500 Hz, and 105 dB at 5,000 Hz. However, the tests demonstrated that high-frequency-sensitivity decreases with age, especially for men, such that by age 50 the average sensitivity at 7,040 Hz is -24 dB for men and -19.7 dB for women. ©2004 Tigertek, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

[alpha80]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corrupt^ /img/forum/go_quote.gif I can hear even over 22Khz but it's not a thing to be happy with...

I know, right?
Sometimes it ain't cool to hear all the tinny sh!t coming off of everything.
Even worse after a Marley or 2...

 

[db597]

*ahem* There are some dogs here...

I remember in one of the other threads, people were claiming to hear even at 30KHz - from an MP3 on top of it all! Turns out the claims were due to artifacts and distortions induced from else where (noise floor of the equipment etc). So even if the settings on your wave generator say 30KHz, you're hearing something else. MP3's all have a cut off filter - usually between 18KHz to 19.3KHz. So it was impossible for them to be hearing anything.

On the bass side however, I would believe if people say they are hearing things below 20Hz, which is supposed to be the human minimum. Or rather, they are "feeling" it rather than hearing it. Which to me is still valid, as sound quality is also about perception from other senses.

Also, 20KHz is not the average by the time you're in your mind 20s. It's more like 17KHz by that time. As you get further on in years, it falls to around 14-15KHz.

 

[PiccoloNamek]

There's really hard and fast rule that your hearing gets worse and worse with age, or that you will inevitably lose your high frequency hearing. Properly taken care of, your good hearing will last you a lifetime. Personally, I believe that many people in modern society suffer from noise induced hearing loss, and the numbers say what they do because the samples were skewed from the beginning.

People who live in relative quiet and solitude, who take care of their ears and don't abuse them, certainly don't experience the same loss. It really bothers me when people tell me that I can't hear a certain frequency because I'm a certain age, or that it must be harmonics/aliasing/whatever. Everybody knows that the average human can only hear to 20kHz, and even they are probably fooling themseves! Anybody over ten years of age can only hear to 15kHz!

Fie!

 

[db597]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek /img/forum/go_quote.gif I bet people who live in relative quiet and solitude don't experience the same loss.

I bet people who use the stock ibuds experience accelerated hearing loss! And how about people who have discovered Head-Fi?

 

[Corrupt^]

Quote:

Originally Posted by db597 /img/forum/go_quote.gif *ahem* There are some dogs here...

I'm not 20 yet

and I've always had a good hearing, but I have a condition which causes me to develop a better hearing, but I'm not gonna talk about it here.

 

[Davesrose]

I bet that condition only happens during full moons

 

[Corrupt^]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Davesrose /img/forum/go_quote.gif I bet that condition only happens during full moons

Nah, I have a mild case of Autism but I'm not really gonna talk about it here, wrong section anyways. But it's known Autistic people have a very sensitive hearing, on the other hand we have a hard time concentrating on just one sound in some cases. For instance when someone speaks to me in a loud environment, a normal person eventually concentrates on the person speaking and the background noise fades, that doesn't work for me.

 

[OmniscientNihilist]

Why do some speakers and amps exceed 20kHz?