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How Old Are Your Ears?

D

Dain Arns

Senior Member
Required to play at 1080HD and have a good set of headphones to work properly, according to the description...
(Well, I could hear up to 10 years younger, barely, but that was it) :blind:

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/VxcbppCX6Rk?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>
 
Years ago during my annual medical check-up I already learned that my hearing was showing some traces from a loud past.

Life is much easier now. I don't have to invest in a great stereo and people say things I don't want to hear I have a great excuse.....

Cheers,
 
A number of years ago, in the process of an Air Force physical, I booted the hearing test by failing to flip a switch soon enough to hear one or two frequencies. Wasn't enough to cause concern, so life went on.
In a subsequent physical in the same facility, I correctly turned on the headphones and heard all the freqs; no one noticed the apparent improvement...until I mentioned it to the clinician who looked back and said, "Oh, yes, you're right," and that was it.

It amused me, at least.
 
Ha, ha! After a lifetime in the profession of arms, I couldn't hear any of the frequencies and I'm sure that my tinnitus (ringing in the ears from loud noise exposure) didn't help either.

Oh well, now I can legally ignore the wife's high pitch and constant nagging! There's a silver lining in every cloud, eh?
 
Wait till you guys need hearing aids. I wear two and that makes my wife happy. Just to keep things interesting, she will say something while I have the aids on and I still say what? What she doesn't know is the two hearing aids are just miniature radio receivers that play soft music. (Just kidding) What goes on here stays here. (My wife doesn't visit SOH)
 
My Age? Years Of Chain Saws?..I can only fill in the blanks from sound memories...A good tip however..Stop Growing Ear Wax For Fun And Profit...HELPS!...HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
 
I would not trust a YT vid as definitive after all it is a recording of a recording (maybe more) - I could not hear the 12000 Hz (2nd sample) nor could my Mrs. yet she has Vulcan hearing - she can hear me grumble about having to go to the mall or take out the garbage from the other end and one floor up in our house. :kilroy: In fact she can probably make out what I just typed by the clicking of the keys and she's at work...... now I'm in trouble. :icon_eek:
 
As others have said, listening to sounds via a YouTube video is absolutely no test at all. There are just too many variables in terms of equipment and reproduction.

Most general medical hearing tests only cover the range of frequencies that cover speech and never test for the full spectrum.

I used to teach professional sound recording classes at a College in the UK and the mixing desk in the recording studio had the ability to produce a range of test tones in order to correctly calibrate the equipment. Very early in the courses I would do a hearing test with the students to see just how well they could hear and the test sometimes surprised the students as they had no idea how good or bad their hearing was.

The generally accepted range for 'normal' hearing is 20 Hz to 20 Khz but we lose the ability to hear higher frequencies as we get older and loud music/industrial noise usually damages the higher frequencies first. Interesting things start to happen at either end of the scale too. Very low frequencies start to be felt in the body cavity rather than heard. Ever been to a rock concert and 'felt' the bass guitar 'kicking' you in the gut? Get the sound frequency low enough and you start to feel nausea. At the other end of the scale very high frequencies can cause physical pain. I can barely 'hear' 15 Khz now but I can 'sense' frequencies up to and beyond 20 Khz. In my case I get a sensation of pressure in my head between my temples and as the frequency of the sound goes up the pressure increases until the frequency goes beyond my ability to sense it (normally around 22 Khz).
 
20 years of working in the enginerooms of Navy ships has given me an almost constant ringing in my ears. I'm not going to even bother with that test :icon_lol:
 
Tako_Kichi said:
Ever been to a rock concert and 'felt' the bass guitar 'kicking' you in the gut? QUOTE]

That reminds me of a concert I was reluctantly persuaded to go to in '88 in exchange for my friends coming to see Zappa. It was AC/DC and when that bass kicked in it was all I could do to stop from vomiting, I felt so ill to the pit of my stomach. Hours after the concert still felt unwell.
Click to expand...
 
Two years sleeping behind the gun line in a 155 SP unit, flying around in C-130's for 25 years, countless hours on the range, too many rock concerts -- but I can still go up to 16,000 Hz...fades fast after that.

My 17 year old daughter can hear every tone....
 
I could hear the 8000 Hrz tone (the first one) only. Like many here (hear) I've worked around jets for a long period of my life, and that probably has a lot to do with it, beyond just getting older. In some ways it's good: When sleeping with the frogs and the crickets going outside full blast, if I lay with my head on the pillow such that my right ear is "up" I can hear them clearly and they keep me awake. If I turn over and place my other ear up, no crickets, no frogs, no phone, no nothing with high freqs! It's great! :icon_lol: On the other hand, if my foxes start their screechy-barky warning call in the middle of the night, I'll wake up, because they're loud! And this has to be affecting my ability to appreciate music, even though I can't tell, so far...
 
I am good up through 17,000. I am 24, so I guess my hearing is right where it should be. Good news as I listen to a lot of music with high end headphones and a pretty powerful amplifier.

This may explain why I can hear a bunch of weird noises coming from my laptop at work but none of my coworkers can hear it. They're all 40+ years old. Very interesting!
 
Tako_Kichi said:
As others have said, listening to sounds via a YouTube video is absolutely no test at all.
Click to expand...

Correct, just did the test and I came not even close to the results I always achieve during my medicals.
Flown noisy turboprops etc. without headset for many years and my hearing is still very good.
 
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