Didn't read the whole thread, but I have two remarks:
1) the ear has no pitch discrimination above about 12kHz. This means that 14kHz and, say, 18kHz just sound alike.
2) have a look at the equal-loudness contours. Above 15kHz the threshold of audibility rises rapidly with frequency. So the outcome of a treble audibility test depends heavily on the absolute sound pressure used in the test and on the level of ambient noise.
1) the ear has no pitch discrimination above about 12kHz. This means that 14kHz and, say, 18kHz just sound alike.
2) have a look at the equal-loudness contours. Above 15kHz the threshold of audibility rises rapidly with frequency. So the outcome of a treble audibility test depends heavily on the absolute sound pressure used in the test and on the level of ambient noise.
We're all aware that from birth our hearing is on the general decline - Pardon?
Whether we can hear pure tone is irrelevant. I'm ancient and probably struggle with 12 kHz but I still prefer a response that goes up to 40 kHz because it sounds right to my ancient and limited hearing.
The HIFI site
Whether we can hear pure tone is irrelevant. I'm ancient and probably struggle with 12 kHz but I still prefer a response that goes up to 40 kHz because it sounds right to my ancient and limited hearing.
The HIFI site
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can you explain a little more? does it mean sounds over 12k can be resolved as a 12k sound? i don't really get it
Didn't read the whole thread, but I have two remarks:
1) the ear has no pitch discrimination above about 12kHz. This means that 14kHz and, say, 18kHz just sound alike.
If we can't discriminate pitches above 12kHz, then we can neglect "treble extension" and use a driver that's only good up to 12kHz and then add a treble boost. But very unfortunately that wasn't the case of mine. It could have saved me money for supertweeters or exotic tweeters for better "full range" drivers but I still need a decent tweeter.
this would not be correct also if the statement about pitch is true, but a dsp tranferring energy downward to equivalent pitch frequencies would be possible, similar to an inverse MAXX-BASS.
it is a curious statement anyway.
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Lol... now I don't follow football all but even I know when that was... I think
and if so that put's me at 2yrs older than you.It's very inconclusive using a PC to test hearing, I use a lab generator and some cheap phones, but at least I can gauge levels to some extent as the generator has a calibrated output... and at sound levels just above the threshold of hearing I can "hear" to around 14.5 khz, beyond that the level has to be increased slightly, then cosiderably. I find a definite dip at around 15 to 16 khz and then strangely l can "hear" beyond that to around 18 to 18.5khz but the amplitude is around 50 db down compared to the roll of that occurs at 14.5k The absolute upper limit seems to vary with some days better some worse.
I wonder whether the dip at 15k was caused by working as a repair tech on TV's (15625 hz line timebase) in the days of scan coils and LOPTX's... who knows... but it seems a real effect as a loss of sensitivity of perhaps 5 to 10 db compared with either side.
I know this probably sounds weird (or makes me sound weird lol) but for the last few years I regularly (when I can make the time) try and listen to sweeps from around 2k to 20k in 500hz bands and try and push the threshold I can hear at lower and lower. I "feel" my hearing is pretty good... but whether doing this can actually improve hearing over very very long periods of time I don't know, and Im talking over years... never turned up any research on it anyway, but who knows. I also take Ginko Biloba daily as it's said to improve blood flow in tiny vessels.
I totally agree with this assessment.
I have recently had an extensive series of hearing tests over a two month period, due to a skull fracture and some noticeable hearing loss as a result of the injury. (I am regaining my hearing!!)
I can hear a pure clinical tone at 22K in my unaffected ear, but my "deaf ear" can only hear to 18K. My doctor was astounded to see this level of ability in a fifty five year old man. I could only think of how much hearing ability I KNOW I have lost.
This test has some degree of what I consider to be "distortion" mingled in with each tone, I feel, making it very difficult to take seriously. Even disregarding the possibility that many computer speakers are incapable of extremes of frequency response, it seems that this test is fun, but not much more.
Very annoying to my cat, though!
The inner ear (organ of Corti) is structured a little like a harp; different regions along the length of the basilar membrane resonate at different frequencies. If there is some structural damage, maybe it's possible that an area becomes sensitive to a different range of frequencies? The brain would then mis-register frequencies - e.g., an incomming 18kHz stimulus might be picked up by sensory cells that originally were sensitive to lower frequencies - the brain would then tell you that you were heaing 14kHz.
I don't quite know how we interpret the frequency of sound in each ear independantly, but we obviously don't hear beats at all when listening to any tone via both ears.
Steerpikes post above is spot on, yet our ears could never be "matched" to such precision... so there must be some common "processing" going on with regard to frequency.
Steerpikes post above is spot on, yet our ears could never be "matched" to such precision... so there must be some common "processing" going on with regard to frequency.
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