I did a hearing test last night and found I could hear just after/as 17kHz was announced. I'm 37 so I wasn't sure if this is low for my age. I was a bit depressed I couldn't hear up to at least 18kHz but on Wikipedia it said most adults can't hear above 16kHz, so perhaps it's not so bad.

I was in a band for 6 years with really silly noise levels once or twice a week, and often sudden feedback shreaks, etc. Before then I could just about hear those teenage repeller sirens in my late 20s. That said, my environment is otherwise unusually quiet.

Quote J.A.S:

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I did a hearing test last night and found I could hear just after/as 17kHz was announced. I'm 37 so I wasn't sure if this is low for my age. I was a bit depressed I couldn't hear up to at least 18kHz but on Wikipedia it said most adults can't hear above 16kHz, so perhaps it's not so bad.

I was in a band for 6 years with really silly noise levels once or twice a week, and often sudden feedback shreaks, etc. Before then I could just about hear those teenage repeller sirens in my late 20s. That said, my environment is otherwise unusually quiet.

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That's totally unacceptable levels of hearing loss. I suggest you get new ears immediately.

Do not neglect the all important 18kHz to 19kHz frequency range.

Johnny, please use a smilie when you pull someone's leg that hard.....

In my late teens and early 20's I used to fix all kinds of medical equipment for a living and occasionally used to work on audiology equipment.

At that point, according to the testers, I could go to about 22KHz. I believe that was fairly accurate but who knows? The sound heard at that level was akin to a bat farting very gently through a picolo and then the sound being put through a filter comprised of dry leaves and organic mint.

These days in my 40's I'm stuffed if I know where my upper limit is - the rest of me is gradually falling to bits so I don't imagine my ears are any different

A few days ago I noticed a strange whining sound when I played my guitar amp flat out without the attenuator.

Turns out it was my wife.

Is there an emoticon for a rimshot? If not, why not?

I went through the standard Audiology test at a hospital recently, as part of the investigation of an ear problem. The consultant glanced at the result slip and just said "That's OK then". When I expressed interest in the details, it transpired that they only tested as far as 8K.

Home testing of one's hearing response is fraught with error sources and can only ever be used comparatively with previous tests done the same way with the same equipment...

You should never rely on them as being accurate in any way because you can't guarantee the response accuracy of the headphones or the gain calibration of the replay system.

However, hearing accuity naturally dalls off with age and it is said that humans lose roughly 1Hz of their hearing bandwidth for every day of their life! Quite a sobering thought!

Young people (below 20 or so) can often detect 20kHz or slightly above at nominal levels (see the Fletcher Munson sensitivity curves which show the relative insensitivity or 20kHz relative to 1kHz), but as we get older the sensitivity falls so that initially we need increasingly greater levels before we can hear such high frequencies... and eventually we might become completely insensitive to them.

Being able to hear 17kHz reliably when in your late 30s / early 40s is about normal, but everybody's hearing perception and bandwidth is slightly different. I'm sure you'll have friends of similar age who can't detect 17kHz and others who can still hear 19kHz -- and you might well find that womens' hearing bandwidth is slightly better than mens' of a similar age.

Hearing damage caused by prolonged exposure to excessive sound levels tends to make itself known first by a widening and deepening of the 'disco-dip' -- a common narrow bandwidth reduction in hearing sensitivity around the 4kHz area. This plays a significant part in reducing the intelligibility of speech and its the area of most interest to audiologists when they are trying to establish hearing damage and the requirement for hearing aids. Also, sa has been said, few standard auiology tests extend beyond about 8-10kHz.

It sounds to me like your hearing is in good shape... For a man of your age!

Hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

Cheers. I've still got my fingers crossed medical developments will enable me to hear like a new-born baby again (if that's a good thing) by the time it's got really bad. I've started listening to my MP3 player on the lowest notches for most albums, and I'm quite used to it now! Once you turn it up it seems the ear turns the perception of it down anyway.

Quote Hugh Robjohns:

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you might well find that womens' hearing bandwidth is slightly better than mens' of a similar age.

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Yes - when it bloody suits them!

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

Whether it suits us or not!

Suits my husband fine; not hearing the wail of our youngest in the middle of the night.

I guess now I understand why, old git that he is!

Still, it explains why he doesn't hear me when I'm stressed

Quote johnny h:

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Quote J.A.S:

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I did a hearing test last night and found I could hear just after/as 17kHz was announced.

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I wish I could hear as high as 17kHz - even 16kHz would be nice.....

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John - Sound-Link ProAudio
President - Federation Internationale des Chasseurs de Sons

Quote ceridwen:

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Whether it suits us or not!

Suits my husband fine; not hearing the wail of our youngest in the middle of the night.

I guess now I understand why, old git that he is!

Still, it explains why he doesn't hear me when I'm stressed

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See... that's I mean!

Thank you for making my point!

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

I currently have 70dBHL in my left ear and 40 in my right.

Started losing it noticeably when I was about 40.

At the time I visited a hearing clinic in the USA after running a sweep generator and plotting where stuff started dropping in and out.
I went in equipped with "well I seem to have a dip at 500 and then another about 4k" and the doctor laughed at me.
"You have obviously got more accurate and more sensitive measuring equipment then we have" he quipped.

But then a few years back I visited specsavers for a new vision test and got them to check my ears out at the same time, which is when I realised just how bad my hearing had become.

I now mix twice, once facing th speakers and then again with it all reversed so I can get some idea of how much treble I am piling on to compensate for everything having disappeared above 12k.

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Me? But I`m such a loveable old bugger!

I was worried about the 'intelligibility of speech' aspect of hearing, because I've noticed recently that I don't understand speech on the telly as well, especially different accents. I keep slipping into listening more to the pattern of how people speak than what they're actually saying. I don't know what that's all about. But I think now it's because the TV is further away than I ever had it, and I've got used to lower volumes than before. Also, for the last 5 years I've gradually spent much less time talking, and the past year hardly at all.