What is your high frequency hearing cutoff?

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I carefully measured the sound output of the speaker. I used a 1/4in B&K microphone and an HP FFT analyzer to be sure that there was only 15Khz and 45KHz. There were no IM products messing with the sound.

OK, but I just can't see how it is possible. Let's examine the evidence:
1. You measured your hearing, and it tops out at 16kHz
2. You measured a signal that is a combination of 15kHz (which you can just hear) and 45kHz as a harmonic (which I assume is lower in level)
3. You claim you "heard" the 45kHz tone

I can't see how 1 and 3 are not contradictory. If you cannot hear a pure tone of 45kHz then reproducing it along with another tone that you can (barely) hear should not make you hear it. I can only conclude that there is something else that you must be "hearing". I put forward a couple of possibilities, and you provided evidence that it can't be the result of IM distortion. So it could be the envelope, or possibly something else, but I don't know of a hearing mechanism that lets you hear a frequency at a low level that you cannot other wise hear at any sound power level. I don't think that an FFT type analyzer would show anything at the envelope frequency for a combination of two different frequencies (if there is no IMD generated).

How much lower in amplitude was the 45kHz distortion product?
 
7-8 kHz...

I was suspicious of my PC sound system so compared with my son. He had no problem with hearing 16-17 kHz at the same sound level.

And i asked a ear specialist if it was possible to raise the hearing frequency. He said, No...

I am 50 years old.
 
Around 14kHz; left ear seems to be a few 100's Hz better than the right one, perhaps 14.3kHz.
I haven't tested this for a long time, and I am rather surprised: I am 58, and I would have expected something lower, like 12kHz.
By contrast, my eyesight did follow the "normal" path: my presbyopia has become really annoying, especially for electronic works. I wisely stick with TTH whenever possible...
 
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20kHz was chosen not because most people could hear it, but because almost nobody could hear it. The fact that almost everyone reporting here is falling short of 20kHz is exactly what you should expect. It confirms that 20kHz was a wise choice: nice round number, high enough to satisfy almost everyone, low enough to be achievable at reasonable cost.

There will always be a few people who genuinely need a bit more, and lots of people who fondly imagine that they need a lot more. Those who think they know a bit about electronics may claim that they need more because of phase, but this is false: the cutoff of 20kHz used in the original tests would have imposed a phase change too so it wasn't just 20kHz which people could not hear but also the phase change at lower frequencies caused by the cutoff.
 
I can quite easily hear 16.5kHz at what I would call a moderate listening volume.. At quieter volumes I cannot hear it at all and my hearing progressively gets better as I drop in frequency. 14k I can hear significantly quieter than the 16.5k, around 30-40dB quieter. 17kHz is really a bit of a no show.

1kHz is ridiculously easy to hear though. I can keep hearing that right down until the analogue CS3318 attenuator goes mute at around -95dB!

I am 31.

When I was 18 I could hear 18.5kHz.

I literally rolled my eyes when the audiophile market thought it was worth introducing super tweeters. What a waste of time and money.
 
I'm knocking at the door of 60 and so far, make it to just over 17KHz, so I have no complaints.
I always thought it would cool/useful if reviewers got tested periodically and shared the results with their subscribers.
However, I think that requires a level of self-confidence that I suspect many do not have.
Kinda' like the "testing without peeking" discussions
🙂

mlloyd1
 
Years ago I was at a Tesla concert in the 3rd row. And I also saw the band Lillian Axe live at a small club in Chicago. They were loud. To this day I have ringing in my ears. I now regret staying for the whole Lillian Axe performance. Anyway I now know I no longer have the ability to hear high frequencies as well as I did before. Luckily the brain fills in the sounds we can longer hear....
 
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Years ago I was at a Tesla concert in the 3rd row. And I also saw the band Lillian Axe live at a small club in Chicago. They were loud. To this day I have ringing in my ears. I now regret staying for the whole Lillian Axe performance. Anyway I now know I no longer have the ability to hear high frequencies as well as I did before. Luckily the brain fills in the sounds we can longer hear....

Unfortunately new studies show that the safety level is very low, 85 to 90 dB seem a maximum level for a few hours exposition without injury. There is a paper on the french edition of the Scientific American dated march 2016 by C Liberman and some studies from him and SG Kyjawa can be find on the net (Synaptopathy in the the noise exposed and aging cochlea etc).
 
Play music, a tone-complex, sound-complex, and cut high frequencies. Do you listen differences,-?
A pure frequence-wave is not, what a ear does prefer to detect, for what a ear is constructed.-)
There is sooo much to learn about listening: the current theories are not adequate. And to translate in hifi, speakers, amps, sources, more. Do not listen by looking,-)
 
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