How much freq. do you hear? (20-20000)

Mar 4, 2010 at 11:17 PM Post #61 of 67
Quote:

Originally Posted by Palpatine /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I'm curious... will have to get mine checked. Where can this be done?


Well, you can see an audiologist, or you may be able to do it on your computer. Certainly, your system can put out frequencies up to at least 20kHz, but probably higher, so if that's your ceiling, you're good. Just use Audacity's tone generator to make a sine wave. Be careful though, because sine waves have more aptitude to cause hearing loss than any other tone. Make a long one, around a minute, and starting from silence, slowly increase the volume until you can hear it.

If you want to check higher frequencies, there may be a hardware limit on you. I'm sure most of your cans will produce frequencies above 20kHz, but highly attenuated, so you'll need to crank the volume up past what you'd normally listen to (again, be careful). However, your computer might not be up to it. I know my iMac's internal sound can, but my Total Bithead gives up around 21kHz (still makes music sound better than the internal sound, though).
 
Mar 4, 2010 at 11:20 PM Post #62 of 67
Quote:

Originally Posted by DSGant /img/forum/go_quote.gif
~24kHz in the right.


I also can hear some sound when sine waves between 24000 and 24500 Hz with full volume are generated at sample rate 192 kHz.
 
Mar 5, 2010 at 4:57 PM Post #63 of 67
Quote:

Originally Posted by DSGant /img/forum/go_quote.gif
That word... I don't think it means what you think it means.
wink_face.gif


Overtones are a physical acoustical phenomenon, not a psychoacoustic one. That is to say, in order to hear them, one must have functioning hair cells in that frequency range, same as they would in order to hear fundamentals at that frequency.

Furthermore, if I recall correctly, sine waves (which I assume most folks are using for this test) don't produce harmonics.

As far as my hearing goes, I'm a mutant. I can pick up ~26kHz in my left ear and ~24kHz in the right. I'm 27. Keen hearing without hearing loss runs in my family. As far as bass frequencies go, I can hear 13Hz, but at that point, the diaphragms of my cans make a loud flapping noise that sounds like things breaking, so I was afraid to go lower.

I highly doubt it increases my appreciation of music. I may possibly be able to pick up a bit more timbral detail than most folks. But it mostly just means I have to wear earplugs to sleep. I can hear customers walking into the coffee shop while washing dishes, so that's pretty sweet, I guess.

I often wonder how much the upper limits of hearing are physical and how much neurological. My vision is 20/480, and I didn't get glasses until I was 8. I also I have a problem with coalescing the two images in each eye into a single image (my right eye drifts inward). I have a prism in my glasses to correct this, but the first year I had glasses the prescription was reversed, so I was seeing double. Long story short, I was fairly dependent upon my hearing as a child. Then I studied music composition in college, so between ear training and score study with recordings, I developed my ear further.

Whoa, that was a rambling piece of autobiography. My apologies to anyone who read that.

My point is that, in this age of ubiquitous electronics, with lights, power cables, and a plethora of lit-up rectangles surrounding us all day, it seems reasonable that the brain would start discarding those pervasive high frequencies as unnecessary information. So perhaps instead of damage to the hair cells, most folks' brains are simply not turning the vibrations into sound?



I agree this is the same stuff like when a person becomes suddenly blind. We are much more capable as we think. Maybe is thinking the factor that makes our personal borders of perception.
 
Mar 6, 2010 at 8:28 PM Post #64 of 67
I can hear as low as 25-30 Hz in tone, then it turns to all pressure.

As far as high tones.. I top out at around 22k with my HD650s on a protools tone generator.

Its actually quite fun to listen to a constant 45hz wave. Really shows how much bass the phones can make, I just wonder why there isn't so much in songs.

The AKG702 also produce nearly as much bass, which was shocking. It just doesn't do it with most music.

Pretty interesting.

Anyways. 25-22k
 
Mar 11, 2010 at 6:34 PM Post #65 of 67
I can barely hear something at 21khz, 20khz is more audible yet it's still very faint. 19khz is definitely audible
 
Mar 11, 2010 at 7:19 PM Post #66 of 67
18000 with ease, higher and I have to listen closely and turn volume up.

With bass I can't really distinguish whether I hear or feel it under 40 hz, or maybe resonation of speaker/room :P
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top