Uh oh... Cloth ears

[johnthedoctor]

My son and I have been messing around with a tone generator and the highest I can hear is 9Khz.

Is this normal for a 55 year old male? Any point getting a hearing test or is it a case of 'when the highs have gone they stay gone'?

[Sonusthree]

Hi,
Time for you to join the full range speaker forum
As far a I understand it a temporary threshold shift is, well, temporary. This normally occurs after exposure to high SPL's.

What is your work history like? Have you spent a lot of time in noisy factories and around heavy machinery?

I would recommend a quick checkup with the doc to see if you have any deep wax buildup. I hear that this increases with age as well and cotton buds just push it further inside.

Kind regards,
Martin....... I said MARTIN!!

[rabbitz]

55yo and 12K tops, so I'm only about half an octave better.

Maybe that's why 55yo guys like NOS DACs as we have our own built in digital filter.

[Nordic]

I'm in the process of designing a 17khz kid repeller...

[Sonusthree]

Originally posted by Nordic
I'm in the process of designing a 17khz kid repeller...

Isn't that what Mariah Carey is for?

[-_nando-_]

I can hear very clearly till 19Khz, 20Khz I still hear, but much less loud...

Also the bass I can hear starting from 14Hz.

Maybe My ears could be classified this way

Frequency Response:

15hz ~ 20Khz +/- 12Db

I didn't know that age affects the years ! This topic is very interesting to me.

My mom can NOT perceive a lot of noise that I can. When I turn the TV on, I can hear a very thin sound, about 16Khz coming from the tube (it's time to buy a plasma or lcd tv heehhehe), that she cannot perceive.

My PC monitor at the office is quite old already, and it makes a very annoying noise at about 14Khz, that sometimes makes me loose my patience. Noone can hear this too... They say that I'm crazy !


I'm 19yrs old !

[pjpoes]

though I don't doupt the high frequencies, I do doupt what you are hearing in the bass area. If you look at the inner ear structure and the way inwhich we percieve low bass as actual sound, it is physically impossible for you to "Hear" 14hz. However, you can hear many of its harmonics, and so that probably is what you are actually hearing. You also can feel it, and there has been some suggestion to bone transmission of sound, though this is ultrasonic, not subsonic, so again, douptful.

As for annoying sounds I can hear that nobody else can, battery chargers are my number one. My brother and I both hear them, and it annoys us. Nobody else can ever hear them though. I also hear all the supposed ring tones that I shouldn't be able to, etc etc. I have had my ears professionally checked and the audiologist checking me felt I had clear response in the top end with minimal if any hearing loss. However, he did feel that I had some possible loss, or maybe never could hear the very deepest bass as well, in the 20hz range.

Before you decide that you can't hear past 9khz, just curious, was your son able to clearly hear much higher than you. I mean, if he wasn't well into the teens, I would first make sure your testing aperatus has a good flat response out to 20khz or more. Often people claim they can't hear on their stereo 15khz, when in actuality the stereo is 6 decibles down, or more in that range. If you have some loss, lets just say 6 decibles, and then the stereo is down 6 decibles, you now have a combined loss of 12 decibles in that range, no big suprise you can't hear it.

[johnthedoctor]

My son is 26 and was covering his ears right up to 15Khz as the sound annoyed him so. He might well hear higher and 15Khz is the speakers limit.

I thought the speakers produced nothing below 60hz but that is from listening at the computer desk. We left 40hz running and found it loud in the opposite corners of the room and loudest of all when we stood on the sofa which is between the speakers. Certain parts of the room had no sound at all. My son is into studio recording and was explaining standing waves to me.

Did a google on ear wax, was surprised to learn that it can be responsible for a tickely cough which I do suffer from on occasion, something to do with ears and throat sharing some nerve endings. So I'll be getting a check up.

On a dour note, most UK GPs leave the syringing to the practice nurse who often has been given no training in it. 1 in a 1,000 chance of your hearing being worse after treatment so I will play safe and use a decent ENT clinic.

[Nordic]

Hey you could live in asia, where the cure is a guy with a stick, scratching in your ear.

[pjpoes]

they sell these kits in the states inwhich you place drops in your ear, and it causes the wax to essentially fall out. I have tried this, but would recomend you wear hearing protection right after its down for a little while only because your ears are much more sensitive because of a lack of protection. My Dr. gave me that advice once becuause I can suffer from a bit of wax build up sometimes.

By the way, if your speakers bass response is as finicky as you describe, you might be a good candidate for Corner traps. I made a few because I, like most people, had a similar problem, and it really cleared up the bass response. It also helped even it out around the room so I had less of those dead zones. I too listen from both a main listening chair, between the speakers, and my computer desk. At my computer desk the sub sounded weak, but at the couch it sounded much louder, though still not as loud as the corners, as to be expected. 4 bass traps really changed that, its not perfect by any means, but I no longer have the issues I used to.