Hmm,
Out of interest I gave myself a hearing range test by hooking a speaker to my sig gen. Couldn't hear a thing above 15kHz. The amazing thing is the way my hearing just cuts out. No quieter and quieter or anything. Full volume at 14kHz then silence at 15.
Why am I trying to get a 100kHz square wave out of my amplifier when I can't even hear 15?
There's a good question
Year's worth of loud nightclubs and concerts has taken its toll.
Out of interest I gave myself a hearing range test by hooking a speaker to my sig gen. Couldn't hear a thing above 15kHz. The amazing thing is the way my hearing just cuts out. No quieter and quieter or anything. Full volume at 14kHz then silence at 15.
Why am I trying to get a 100kHz square wave out of my amplifier when I can't even hear 15?
There's a good question
Year's worth of loud nightclubs and concerts has taken its toll.
Maybe your speakers cuttof at 15...not a happy thought but much better than ears...
also, there is one other thing that could be...sometimes, cerumen (ear wax) production can increase and partialy or completely block some part of ear canal. I don't mean any disrespect by this, it is normal thing that sometimes can happen due to various reasons, and it usually happens deeper inside the ear canal so that regular hygiene practice cannot remove it...
It's simlpy solved with large syringe and very diluted lukewarm H2O2, but you should not do that by yourself! It's not a DIY thing, not enough force will not do the job, and too much force can damage your eardrum. Go see a doctor and ask for advice/help. After I did it, I thought "I can hear the grass growing" in the park and everything sounded "sparkly" and chock full of high frequency...maybe all is not lost yet...
also, there is one other thing that could be...sometimes, cerumen (ear wax) production can increase and partialy or completely block some part of ear canal. I don't mean any disrespect by this, it is normal thing that sometimes can happen due to various reasons, and it usually happens deeper inside the ear canal so that regular hygiene practice cannot remove it...
It's simlpy solved with large syringe and very diluted lukewarm H2O2, but you should not do that by yourself! It's not a DIY thing, not enough force will not do the job, and too much force can damage your eardrum. Go see a doctor and ask for advice/help. After I did it, I thought "I can hear the grass growing" in the park and everything sounded "sparkly" and chock full of high frequency...maybe all is not lost yet...
High Frequency (HF) hearing loss as you age is normal, nothing to get worried about. As for your particular hearing, 15K is fine ... it's not going to adversely affect your enjoyment of music, which, for me at least, is the point. There is relatively little energy above 15K in most program material and it's nowhere near the characteristic identifying harmonics of instruments and voice.
If you think about it, even if an upper harmonic of some instrument should fall at 9K or 14K, the next is at 18K and 28K ... so you and most others are in the same boat, even if they have relatively good hearing in comparison.
Audiologists have casually said 1K per decade is a fairly common level of HF loss, although I find that a bit steep based on my own personal experience. I'm in my 50's and 16K is no problem, compared to 18K in my 20's. I seem to recall my public schoolday hearing tests also maxing out around 18~19K.
It is far more worrying when hearing loss extends into the mid frequencies where it affects your ability to discern conversation, and that typically is workplace or occasionally a hobby/lifestyle issue. The rest I would not lose sleep over.
As for why an amplifier might want higher bandwidth, that comes down to issues over in-hearing range performance where wider bandwidth proves to be beneficial, or a tweeter material may exhibit a tendency to resonate at HF so there is going to be perhaps an incentive to move that above the hearing range.
Design issues are not always simply a situation of forgetting about the primary hearing band ... (the late) Allen Wright designed his preamps to have response two decades above the audible band ... that's out to 2 Megahertz. He had his reasons, and explained them to anyone interested, although they boil down to that he felt it improved in-band performance in an audible fashion.
If you think about it, even if an upper harmonic of some instrument should fall at 9K or 14K, the next is at 18K and 28K ... so you and most others are in the same boat, even if they have relatively good hearing in comparison.
Audiologists have casually said 1K per decade is a fairly common level of HF loss, although I find that a bit steep based on my own personal experience. I'm in my 50's and 16K is no problem, compared to 18K in my 20's. I seem to recall my public schoolday hearing tests also maxing out around 18~19K.
It is far more worrying when hearing loss extends into the mid frequencies where it affects your ability to discern conversation, and that typically is workplace or occasionally a hobby/lifestyle issue. The rest I would not lose sleep over.
As for why an amplifier might want higher bandwidth, that comes down to issues over in-hearing range performance where wider bandwidth proves to be beneficial, or a tweeter material may exhibit a tendency to resonate at HF so there is going to be perhaps an incentive to move that above the hearing range.
Design issues are not always simply a situation of forgetting about the primary hearing band ... (the late) Allen Wright designed his preamps to have response two decades above the audible band ... that's out to 2 Megahertz. He had his reasons, and explained them to anyone interested, although they boil down to that he felt it improved in-band performance in an audible fashion.
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Similar thread here too,
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/solid-state/185372-testing-essential-part-my-audio-equipement.html
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/solid-state/185372-testing-essential-part-my-audio-equipement.html
I liked it when all my friends thought they where loosing the top end because they couldnt hear a "mosquito app" on their cell phone. Sure enough no one could hear this magical ring that only young kids but not the teacher could hear. I looked up the phone and it has a hard limit of 15khz. So i downloaded a tone generator app and said "here 15khz, ya here it?", "ya it plays fine", "ok here is 16khz", "nothing even when you hold it to your ear"...
If you want to better evaluate your hearing use either well isolated high quality headphones or good earbuds along with sound protective muffs with an SNR of 30dB to isolate from outside noises. Download a sine wave generator that can give reliable tones flat out to 20kHz. If you look at Fletcher Munson curves (or more up to date ISO) you will need to dial up the gain at frequency extrremes to compensate for normal lower sensitivity of hearing. At threshold hearing levels sensitivity at 15kHZ is about 15dB poorer than at 2kHz to 4kHz where sensitivity is highest in normal ears. If it turns out you are down by 30 or 40 dB instead of 15 at 15kHz chock it up to normal effects of ageing plus any overexposure to high noise levels you have sustained. Most important is to listen from now on at sane levels and wear ear protection to preserve what you still have.
I read somewhere that a store owner did something like that,
The teens/20 somethings were hanging out by his store after he closed and trashing the area. He installed and hid several piezo tweeters and played 20 KHz test tones where they would hang out. Problem solved!
My buddies kids did the "mosquito ring tone" thing but I can hear it. They decided to quit the mosquito tone if we would quit playing 20 KHz when relaxing. Thankfully, 20 KHz tone generators are much cheaper than 20 Hz ones.
The teens/20 somethings were hanging out by his store after he closed and trashing the area. He installed and hid several piezo tweeters and played 20 KHz test tones where they would hang out. Problem solved!
My buddies kids did the "mosquito ring tone" thing but I can hear it. They decided to quit the mosquito tone if we would quit playing 20 KHz when relaxing. Thankfully, 20 KHz tone generators are much cheaper than 20 Hz ones.
Quote > My ears max out at 15kHz and I'm only 31...how depressing.
If you really worry get a professional test.
Cut at 15KHz pass no pass does not sound right to me.
2 things came to mind
1) Do you go to any gigs and have wistle in your hears after?
If You have a wistle in your ear after a gig that is the noise that the dying "cels" make, well, before Dyiing
Loads of different cells loads of different lenghts they resonate at the right frequency for their lenght.
Once dead dead it is but they do not die at the same time and you tend to adapt a bit.
My Left ear is much worst than the right (Dj in clubs typical ) and I got a few more years on you but I am still able to recognise a crappy recording when I hear one.
By all means get a proper test and make shure you wont kill any more of those cells with to much to loud noise or find out why and how you caused the damagge
Case 2)
It may even turn up that you are one of those peoples that have never heard a 15KHz note same as maybe beiing color blind.
The Brain can work its way around it.
If you really worry get a professional test.
Cut at 15KHz pass no pass does not sound right to me.
2 things came to mind
1) Do you go to any gigs and have wistle in your hears after?
If You have a wistle in your ear after a gig that is the noise that the dying "cels" make, well, before Dyiing
Loads of different cells loads of different lenghts they resonate at the right frequency for their lenght.
Once dead dead it is but they do not die at the same time and you tend to adapt a bit.
My Left ear is much worst than the right (Dj in clubs typical ) and I got a few more years on you but I am still able to recognise a crappy recording when I hear one.
By all means get a proper test and make shure you wont kill any more of those cells with to much to loud noise or find out why and how you caused the damagge
Case 2)
It may even turn up that you are one of those peoples that have never heard a 15KHz note same as maybe beiing color blind.
The Brain can work its way around it.
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