Testing the essential part of My audio equipement

[GoranB]

Hello,

Today I was testing the most essential part of My audio equipement - My ears.
The result was disspointing, I can only hear in range of 35Hz-12.400Hz. It means I cant hear almost a half of frequency spectrum recorded on a CD.
So, in My case it means i shouldnt be worried about frequencies, transients and harmonics above 13KHz (the good side). The bad side is that I cant hear the music like it is recorded. Nothing to do about this.
I was reading that overall human ear, above age of 30, cant hear the frequencies above 13Khz. Till 20, we can hear up to 16KHz, and kids can hear up to 20KHz.
Maybe We should use kids for valid listening tests, and all We can do is to believe them, because most of Us cant hear above 13KHz in the age of 30.

[theresa]

Males have more of a problem with hearing as they age than women do. Testosterone stiffens the cilia in the inner ear as they age.

[lineup]

Same for me.
like 11.000-12.000 Hz

[GoranB]

I remember, that older audio amplifiers were equiped with a circuit for cutting the frequencies above 12-13KHz and for sub-sonics also.

[MiiB]

..problem is that superpositions of higher frequencies creates patters with lower frequency that is clearly audible...so. don't cut your equipment down...and also one thing is what levels you can consciously pick out and react to.. something else is the performance of your psychoacoustic hearing that sums everything to make sense of it all.....You can't get too much bandwidth...

[GoranB]

I agree.
I dont have an intention to use cut-off filters, at least, because of fact I dont like filters on signal path. Its somehow frustrating I cant hear superpositions above 13KHz

[Jay]

Originally Posted by GoranB

So, in My case it means i shouldnt be worried about frequencies, transients and harmonics above 13KHz (the good side). The bad side is that I cant hear the music like it is recorded...

Don't worry, there's no "music" above 13KHz. And to listen to music I believe we use not just ear but "brain". Our ear may not hear anything but we can perceive something from within the frequency.

Originally Posted by GoranB

Maybe We should use kids for valid listening tests, and all We can do is to believe them...

What will you do with the kids? Asking them if there is a bell sound in the background?

[lineup]

As said, there are higher frequency informations
that add to the sound picture we perceive with brain.
Maybe CD upper 44.1kHz is well enough, though.

[GoranB]

Originally Posted by Jay

Don't worry, there's no "music" above 13KHz. And to listen to music I believe we use not just ear but "brain". Our ear may not hear anything but we can perceive something from within the frequency.

The musical instruments produce overtones up to 15000Hz, also harmonics and transients which are very important for sound stage and imaging.

[Mooly]

How have you performed the test and at what levels ? You may well hear above where you believe the cut off to be but the "response" of the ear could be 30, 40 even 60db down compared to midband.

I can hear to around 13.5 to 14 khz at quite low levels, beyond that the sensitivity drops away although seems to recover slightly above 16khz although the signal has to be some 40db higher than say at 10k to be audible. I can "hear" out to around 18k+ at that level.

Did you use headphones or speakers ?

I'm 49yrs by the way.... just the right side of 50