# How good are your ears?



## kavinsky (Nov 1, 2017)

http://onlinetonegenerator.com/hearingtest.html

Let me know at what frequency the tone stops for you.

I'm right around 15500k for the past 5 years or so (stopped using headphones, started using earplugs after being dissapointed by the first test). But it still bothers me that I'm not like those guys that hear 18k in their 50s, especially considering that my ears are trained and I can hear all sorts of nuances below 15k successfully.

PS videos like this are extremely scary for me haha


----------



## Quasar (Nov 1, 2017)

Still OK at 16 kHz, but beyond that is where it ended for me.


----------



## Rudankort (Nov 1, 2017)

I can hear 15000, at 16k and 17k I hear "something" and then nothing from 18k up.

I suspect that the test is not entirely correct. When I was doing such tests myself, I could not hear anything at 16k and up, and was actually pretty scared by this. The reason why I did these tests in the first place was that, I could not do any exercises in TrainYourEars app which involved such high frequences. At times I though I heard something, but every time it turned out I was just imagining it.

What I hear in this video at 16k and 17k does not sound like a proper tone, but some artefacts related to it. Not sure what's going on here.


----------



## TSG (Nov 1, 2017)

I'm 23 and it dropped out for me at around 13k. Hooray


----------



## kavinsky (Nov 1, 2017)

Rudankort said:


> I can hear 15000, at 16k and 17k I hear "something" and then nothing from 18k up.
> 
> I suspect that the test is not entirely correct. When I was doing such tests myself, I could not hear anything at 16k and up, and was actually pretty scared by this. The reason why I did these tests in the first place was that, I could not do any exercises in TrainYourEars app which involved such high frequences. At times I though I heard something, but every time it turned out I was just imagining it.
> 
> What I hear in this video at 16k and 17k does not sound like a proper tone, but some artefacts related to it. Not sure what's going on here.


the first link is pretty spot on, I actually started with a sine wave in a synth and the result lines up well.


----------



## Rudankort (Nov 1, 2017)

kavinsky said:


> the first link is pretty spot on, I actually started with a sine wave in a synth and the result lines up well.



Well I've now tried to generate a 16k sine wave in Audition and that's definitely not what I hear in this video. I'll try to investigate further what's going on here.


----------



## dannymc (Nov 1, 2017)

could hear them all except the last at 19,000hz, is there actually a sound there? 

Danny


----------



## synthpunk (Nov 1, 2017)

All the way here.
Hearing protection, very careful use of headphones, yearly visit to E.N.T. for cleaning is key, and allot of luck before I knew any of this


----------



## mac (Nov 1, 2017)

Jesus Christ . Let's just say I've been over compensating with the high shelf eq.


----------



## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 1, 2017)

Usually our hearing doesn't just drop off at a certain frequency, it has dips.

Last time I checked I could hear 20K (if it was turned way up and my head was pointing the right way), but not all freqs between that and about 12K.

The important freqs are below that. Unfortunately speech intelligibility is about 2.5 - 5K, and that's where people tend to lose hearing. (Those are overtones, not the fundamentals.)

Edit: it's actually not just speech intelligibility - everything intelligibility is centered around 4K.


----------



## Saxer (Nov 1, 2017)

Is there any sound after 8K in that video?


----------



## URL (Nov 1, 2017)

Who needs good hearing often people look at the screen to see the level of frequency in some plugin...
My ears was 15k+ but depending how my headphone was angled.


----------



## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 1, 2017)

URL said:


> Who needs good hearing often people look at the screen to see the level of frequency in some plugin...



There's a big difference between hearing acuity and eartraining!

This is The Shiz for that.

(Disclaimer: I have a vested interest in the publishing company.)


----------



## URL (Nov 1, 2017)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> There's a big difference between hearing acuity and eartraining!
> 
> This is The Shiz for that.
> 
> (Disclaimer: I have a vested interest in the publishing company.)



You are absolutely right- Some times I find my self looking at the monitor to be sure What I'm hearing...
Ear training is incredibly important as well as performing it continuously.


----------



## gregh (Nov 1, 2017)

Saxer said:


> Is there any sound after 8K in that video?


none at all 

more interesting (for an older guy like me) are tests on acuity - there was quite a good one around that tested frequency discrimination.


----------



## MarcelM (Nov 1, 2017)

this cant be right.... 

i hear up to 18k pretty good. i also hear it on 19k. but very quiet... thing is iam turning 45 in february 

so either iam lucky or this test isnt accurate

did it on headphones between


----------



## Paul Grymaud (Nov 1, 2017)




----------



## mburellmusic (Nov 1, 2017)

Um...is anyone else's speakers making periodic clicking sounds for the 16k+ tests? That can't be good.


----------



## John Busby (Nov 1, 2017)

mburellmusic said:


> Um...is anyone else's speakers making periodic clicking sounds for the 16k+ tests? That can't be good.


yep


----------



## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 1, 2017)

Most DAWs have a frequency generator you can sweep. You shouldn't need an online test.


----------



## zvenx (Nov 1, 2017)

Both my DAW frequency generator and the first post give me roughly the same results.. 16K I top off. I am 53
rsp


----------



## Saxer (Nov 2, 2017)

Age 56
15K here right ear. Left ear is less since an inflammation about four years ago. I had a month where my left ear was nearly deaf and I'm glad it came back up to 14K. My right ear has a cut at 8K after a sudden hearing loss 17 years ago. Sometimes I can hear higher than 15K but that's a sound the ear makes itself.

Since then my musical taste changed. Can't stand heavy transients like dancy kick drums any more. Guess why I love strings now?


----------



## Nils Neumann (Nov 2, 2017)

15k, I‘m 20... I‘m going to the doctor:/


----------



## ptram (Nov 2, 2017)

There is something wrong with this test. I went to an audiologist a couple years ago, and my hearing was nearly perfect up to over 20kHz (with a small dip on one side, due to firecracker explosion next to my ear). Here, I can't hear nothing over 8kHz.


----------



## kavinsky (Nov 2, 2017)

ptram said:


> There is something wrong with this test. I went to an audiologist a couple years ago, and my hearing was nearly perfect up to over 20kHz (with a small dip on one side, due to firecracker explosion next to my ear). Here, I can't hear nothing over 8kHz.


just generate a sinewave in a synth and look at the spectrum analyzer while listening to the tones.


----------



## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 2, 2017)

Again again again: chances are your hearing doesn't just cut off at a frequency, it has dips along the way up to higher ones.


----------



## LamaRose (Nov 2, 2017)

I'm 53, and audible sound drops like lead around 11k. Also have long-standing tinnitus.

Funny thing is that I seem to have uncanny "peripheral" hearing... I can hear incredibly low/soft sounds, not unlike my many cats or dog. There are times when I'll pick up on something before the felines or canine. Maybe there's a tradeoff occurring... a sacrifice of overall frequency response for sensitivity in more primal/survival frequencies?


----------



## LamaRose (Nov 2, 2017)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> Again again again: chances are your hearing doesn't just cut off at a frequency, it has dips along the way up to higher ones.



There's obviously much more to audio acuity/interpretation than meets the ear, so to speak. Just as with visual interpretation, our mind/memories/preconceived perceptions are surely coloring the overall audio experience. And even though our physical frequency response may be within a given empirical range, our minds may add/subtract given frequencies for myriads of reasons.


----------



## stixman (Nov 2, 2017)

Great post has given me a wake up call  Nothing after 15k


----------



## Mornats (Nov 2, 2017)

I'm 43 and have a bit of tinnitus caused by wax being blocked in my ears (lost almost total hearing in my left ear for a few weeks). I'm getting it sorted next week but right now, using that video and generating a sine wave in Reaper I'm hearing nothing above 13.5khz. Once my ears are sorted next week I'm getting custom moulded ear plugs (using ill-fitting generic earplugs are what I believe to have caused the blockage in my ear). Also, volumes on headphones are way down now.


----------



## ironbut (Nov 2, 2017)

I didn't hear anything above 8k but I just hit 63.
IMHO, you shouldn't worry too much about the natural loss of hearing of pure tones as we age.
There are many ways that the brain compensates for the loss of hearing.
After all, many of the folks generally considered the "best" mastering and mixing engineers are over 50.

I use that ear training app called QuizTones to "wake up" my ears and I can identify the difference between peak eq settings of 8k, 10k and 12k most of the time.
If we were working with pure tones, it would be a different matter, but we're working with extremely complex tones.


----------



## pixel (Nov 2, 2017)

17,6kHz (huge drop above 17kHz) with Test Generator in DAW. Quite normal for 32 years old I guess.
I don't trust online tests which may use compressed audio with artifacts on higher frequencies especially when affected with mediocre LP filter. Does even Youtube codec allow anything above 16kHz? I downloaded my own track from YT in wav format and there is nothing above 16kHz.

EDIT: I don't feel good after tweaking sine wave around 16-18kHz for longer time on headphones. It's normal?


----------



## JohnG (Nov 2, 2017)

"What? What's the question? Why do you young people mumble so much?"


----------



## Marcin M (Nov 2, 2017)

I heard something up to ~17.5 kHz not that bad I think


----------



## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 2, 2017)

LamaRose said:


> There's obviously much more to audio acuity/interpretation than meets the ear, so to speak. Just as with visual interpretation, our mind/memories/preconceived perceptions are surely coloring the overall audio experience. And even though our physical frequency response may be within a given empirical range, our minds may add/subtract given frequencies for myriads of reasons.



No question, psychoacoustics are real.

However, there's not a lot of anything other than hearing acuity going on if you play a sine wave in headphones.


----------



## synthpunk (Nov 2, 2017)

They will most likely use hot water from a large siphon to soften, then flush the wax out your ears. It's a little uncomfortable and when it pops a big relief. You may get some drops also if there was any infection.

Do not use q-tips or stick anything into your ear, this is usually what causes wax plugs over time. Try and see a ENT Dr to get your ears examined and cleaned once a year.

Use hearing protection when possible, very careful use of headphones, and try and keep your monitoring levels no more than 86 db.

I am married to a health professional.



Mornats said:


> I'm 43 and have a bit of tinnitus caused by wax being blocked in my ears (lost almost total hearing in my left ear for a few weeks). I'm getting it sorted next week but right now, using that video and generating a sine wave in Reaper I'm hearing nothing above 13.5khz. Once my ears are sorted next week I'm getting custom moulded ear plugs (using ill-fitting generic earplugs are what I believe to have caused the blockage in my ear). Also, volumes on headphones are way down now.


----------



## Mornats (Nov 2, 2017)

Thanks for the tips. I've been careful not to use any q-tips or anything like that. After I've had them cleaned I think I'll get a check up with an ENT. It was quite a scare losing the hearing due to a blockage. I wasn't sure at the time if it was permanent or not.

I tend to monitor at around 50-60 db on speakers anyway, mostly due to having paper-thin walls and neighbours. It's hard to judge the sound level of headphones though so I just have to turn them down to as low as I can. Would be good to know if there's a way to measure headphones so I can have a limit in mind.


----------



## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 2, 2017)

synthpunk said:


> Do not use q-tips or stick anything into your ear, this is usually what causes wax plugs over time



It must be an individual thing. I've been cleaning my ears with Q-tips every couple of days all my life, and I've never had wax buildup.


----------



## ptram (Nov 3, 2017)

I just tried with Logic's Test Oscillator and a pair of Mackie HR824mkI. The sine sweep is very clear until 15kHz, then suddenly decreases next to nothing. I can still perceive some 'life' at 20kHz, but it is more some 'change in the air' when moving the knob, than a real sound.

So, I insist something is not working right in this test.

And, yes, I too feel bad with values around 16kHz.

Paolo


----------



## WindcryMusic (Nov 3, 2017)

Sadly, I couldn't even hear the 15K tone. But then again, I'm in my mid-50's. Plus, I spent more than a decade of my youth standing on hard rock stages almost every night with a Marshall amp cranked up behind me and cymbal crashes happening a few feet from my ears. Double-plus, I have bilateral Ménière's disease and constant tinnitus. So I'm just glad I can still hear anything at all.


----------



## Saxer (Nov 3, 2017)

Luckily most music happens below 10K. The FM radio stations of our youth couldn't even receive more than 15K. And at that time our ears were young and fresh!


----------



## JeffvR (Nov 3, 2017)

Usual hearing tests go to 8k. And remember it's only one octave of information between 10k and 20k. Just as much as between 100 hz and 200 hz. I have a 25dB dip in my right ear at 6k + tinnitus. Annoying at times, but it doesn't hold me back with composing .


----------



## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 3, 2017)

ptram said:


> So, I insist something is not working right in this test.
> 
> 
> Paolo



It sounds to me like the test is working exactly as it's supposed to! What you're reporting is a totally credible result.


----------



## Leon Portelance (Nov 3, 2017)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> There's a big difference between hearing acuity and eartraining!
> 
> This is The Shiz for that.
> 
> (Disclaimer: I have a vested interest in the publishing company.)



I spent many hours doing ear training during my music degree in the early 70s. My scores definitely improved with practice.


----------



## synergy543 (Nov 3, 2017)

I listen to music and I hear more and more each day, particularly when I practice. And I start to hear more than just dog frequencies, there are so many other parameters and aspects to music that I start to become acutely aware of (tonal nuances, subtle timing of phrases, inner voices, etc.). I can hear so much more than when I was a cocky teen. Kids, be assured that like many other things in life, it can get better with age.

Pablo Casals, the famous Spanish cellist who lived to be 97 years of age, when he reached 95, a young reporter threw him a question: “Mr. Casals, you are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived. Why do you still practice six hours a day?” And Mr. Casals answered, *“Because I think I’m making progress.”*


----------



## storyteller (Nov 3, 2017)

FWIW the youtube video is inaccurate above 15k.  Using a tone generator in your DAW will reveal that the high frequencies are greatly absent in the video, whereas they are audible from a DAW.


----------



## devonmyles (Nov 4, 2017)

synthpunk said:


> Use hearing protection when possible, very careful use of headphones, and try and keep your monitoring levels no more than 86 db.
> 
> I am married to a health professional.



So, do you talk about ear wax over romantic dinners ?


Thanks for info.


----------



## WindcryMusic (Nov 4, 2017)

storyteller said:


> FWIW the youtube video is inaccurate above 15k.  Using a tone generator in your DAW will reveal that the high frequencies are greatly absent in the video, whereas they are audible from a DAW.



I'll buy that. I was already wondering how a YouTube-lossy-compressed audio stream could possibly retain those high frequencies, when the lossy compression is very much designed to remove audio elements that aren't as important to hear.

Of course it probably doesn't affect my results, since I couldn't even hear the 15K tone. 

I agree with several others in this thread. I don't think this has any impact at all on my ability to compose music. It probably has some minor effect on my mixing, but I tend to rely on visual metering to tell me what I'm getting up in those high ranges anyway. The couple of dBs of hearing loss that I already know I have at lower, more easily audible ranges undoubtedly impacts my mixing more, and I'm constantly working to overcome that.


----------



## Erick - BVA (Nov 4, 2017)

synthpunk said:


> All the way here.
> Hearing protection, very careful use of headphones, yearly visit to E.N.T. for cleaning is key, and allot of luck before I knew any of this


I got all the way too, but it does't seem accurate to me. There seem to be a lot of other frequencies going on at the same time, so I'm not sure if I'm actually hearing the 20k frequencies or something else...


----------



## VinRice (Nov 4, 2017)

I top out at 11.5K. Have done consistently for about 10 years. It's of no consequence.


----------



## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 4, 2017)

VinRice said:


> I top out at 11.5K. Have done consistently for about 10 years. It's of no consequence.



Same here - 11.5K is the top continuous freq.

In other words, I'm extremely fortunate!


----------



## synergy543 (Nov 4, 2017)




----------



## Atarion Music (Nov 8, 2017)

I can hear them all. Loud and clear. 19khz is as if the volume was turned down


----------



## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 8, 2017)

But how old are you?

TV used a 14kHz carrier tone when it was analog, because very few people could hear it.


----------



## SergeD (Nov 8, 2017)

I can't hear beyond my tinnitus (11kHz), anybody else ?


----------



## tmhuud (Nov 9, 2017)

15666

I think Youtube stops being able to hold a frequency past 17k

Being an old man I am lucky I have such excellent hearing. (knock on wood)


----------



## Shamgar (Nov 23, 2017)

At first I thought I couldn't even hear 15000, but when I cranked volume up, I heard up to 18000, but it was very soft and seemed to be lower and lower

In the other vid (that goes down from 20000), I heard a low sound early on that became higher and higher. It was around 15k it remained high.

I'm 37 and have some tinitus in my left ear due to comforting screaming babies.

And I'm a metal musician, but have been using earplugs for 15 years now


----------



## Ned Bouhalassa (Nov 23, 2017)

I think I’m a 14k kinda guy. I grew up on Lost in Space and Thunderbirds, so I think I’m doing ok. I do have a dip somewhere around 8k, I think, but I compensate with a Big Muff pedal on every mix.


----------



## jules (Nov 27, 2017)

Saxer said:


> Luckily most music happens below 10K


Lol. Good ol' warm & vintage ears here. Big roll-off above 14000 !


----------



## AllanH (Nov 27, 2017)

That's depressing - 12k. I'm going to blame the headphones


----------



## robgb (Dec 13, 2017)

I'm sixty-two, so I'm assuming they're shot.


----------



## Tod (Dec 13, 2017)

Heh heh, at 62 my ears weren't great but they were better than they are now, going on 75. I'm thinking about teaching audio engineering to one of my daughters.  My wife already said no!


----------



## kavinsky (Feb 4, 2019)

oh its that time of the year again
right ear - 14.5k, left - 13k, which is super depressing at 29 years old


----------



## JeffvR (Feb 6, 2019)

kavinsky said:


> oh its that time of the year again
> right ear - 14.5k, left - 13k, which is super depressing at 29 years old


It's not that bad. Remember there's only 1 octave of information between 10k and 20k


----------



## ironbut (Feb 6, 2019)

I used to work on some older analog gear. One I used to modify were the Dolby Labs Model 330 which was used to encode cassettes for Dolby B. It was universally used for any Dolby B cassettes that were being sold at your local Tower Records or where ever you bought your music in those days.
Built into the circuit was a 15kHz low pass filter. 
To make a long story short(er), Dolby B encoded commercial cassettes had everything over 15kHz filtered out.
IMHO I think we are too concerned with stuff like this.


----------



## robh (Feb 6, 2019)

I'm nearly 52. Left ear: 14.5kHz, right ear: 15.5kHz. If I sweep up to it I seem to not hear, or maybe "perceive" is the better word, above 13kHz. But turning on and off at those frequencies, I can hear it.

Rob


----------



## Cinebient (Feb 7, 2019)

The doc said i‘m at 117% for the control group of my age .


----------



## ironbut (Feb 7, 2019)

Here's something crazy.
I just read Cinebient's post about his doctors accessment and thought to myself, "wish I could afford to go to a specialist to have my hearing checked out".
Considering that I spent a couple of grand on software last year, I would have to say that I CAN afford it!
What a git!


----------



## Cinebient (Feb 7, 2019)

ironbut said:


> Here's something crazy.
> I just read Cinebient's post about his doctors accessment and thought to myself, "wish I could afford to go to a specialist to have my hearing checked out".
> Considering that I spent a couple of grand on software last year, I would have to say that I CAN afford it!
> What a git!



I have to do it at least every 3 years together with a checkup including everything else like eyes, blood etc. and so on (it is a must for my job). Maybe good since i never ever would go to a doc normally as long as i could stay. I work in very loud places and so i expected not so good results. 
It was a great surprise that my ears seems indeed the best of all my body parts, lol.
I had a tinnitus years ago but it is mainly gone (but i still can hear it in total silence).
Always try to save your ears. What is gone will never come back....at least not at the current possibilities.
I have to check the doctors diagram for the frequencies.


----------

