We got a lot of positive feedback on our Can You Hear Like a Teenager? article, and it inspired us to take it just a little bit further.
Check your hearing with a list of tones that go from 8Hz all the way up to 22,000Hz. It’s fairly common for people who are over 25 years of age to not be able to hear above 15kHz and also experience some level of hearing loss or hearing damage such as tinnitus. This online test will help you find out where your high frequency hearing cuts off.
Musicians have a much higher risk of hearing loss that most people do, and many of us don’t really wear proper hearing protection. Even just listening to an iPod for an extended period of time can permanently damage your hearing. We also gradually lose our high-frequency hearing as we age.
Take our online hearing test: listen to each of these tones and let us know where your hearing cuts out. Make sure to turn the volume down on your headphones or speakers and gradually turn them up to a safe level.
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8 kHz
10 kHz 12 kHz 14 kHz 15 kHz 16 kHz |
17 kHz
18 kHz 19 kHz 20 kHz 21 kHz 22 kHz |
Importance of Hearing Protection
If you’re around loud music a lot like I am, or if you are experiencing some hearing loss, I highly recommend getting a pair of hearing protection earplugs.
The Etymotic earlplugs don’t muffle the sound like conventional earplugs – they basically give you the same frequency response as without, but with a bit lower volume. If I wear them out to a club, they also help me carry on a conversation without yelling. Etymotic earbuds are also great in that they isolate your ear so you don’t have to turn up the volume as much on your MP3 player (ambient noise is one of the biggest reasons we turn up the volume). I love mine.
31 years old, I worked in a machine shop with loud equipment for 3 years, and I have been installing residential, and commercial security systems for 5 the last years. I stand 2 – 3 ft away from sirens that range 85 DB to 155 DB for anywhere between 10 minutes, and 30 minutes. All with no ear protection I was able to hear up to 20 khz with volume at 30% all of them painful, everything after that i was not able to hear but my ears still hurt while they were playing (i think it’s due to my headphones, and speakers though. I have always been sensitive to high noises, but my problem is i have problems hearing low frequency. its been years since i have had an actual hearing test though, so i don’t think this test means much.
I’m 19, and I can hear almost all of the tones. I’m used to the high pitched tones associated with powering on old tv sets, but occasionally I hear the tones at random points of time in my day. I can legitimately hear all up to 18k, but feel the higher tones. The tones are almost painful no matter the volume level that is set.
This test isn’t always scientific.
I know I can hear above 15 K, but the test didn’t show anything for me on the 17 K file. No sound, I didn’t even feel a pulse, like also happens to me when I perceive high frequencies. I’m using my studio setup, but the MacPro’s bilt-in sound plugged into my mixer, which is how I always browse the web.
Low and behold, I loaded Sound Forge and began to generate tones, piping them through my MOTU Audio Express instead, plugged into the mixer as well. Both wearing Audio Technica headphones. I was fully prepared not to hear anything at 17000 HZ, but I got a very sharp, high frequency tone. 17500 was similar. It started to become something I felt more than heard once I hit 18000, at which point I stopped the test.
If you don’t hear the tones, try it on something else. Not everything can reproduce them properly.
I am 33 and am totally blind i had my hearing tested when i was about 8 they said i had good enough hereing that i could here things from about 3 blocks away! now with volume ab20 i can still here as well this is weird as i listen to music alot andi also use a screanreader to read the screan output sutch astext ad other things to me this means i have alot of stuff thing through my headphones sound whise at once! i amsupprized my hereing hasn’t decromented over time! i guess i am luck?
Im 20 years old and i didnt hear anything up 15-16… My hearing must be terrible, but the funny thing is that i dont really experience anh problems with it. I hear loud and clear when someone is talking to me and everything else. I was doing the test on a tablet, with headphones plugged in. May that be the problem? Either that, or im going deaf.
I could hear all the ones on the left but none on the right. I do not know if this was same for a lot of people of not
I didn’t hear any of them. I am 48, I did a lot of babysitting in my time and kid watching. I think they busted my eardrums. Kids have this way with high pitch screaming when they don’t get their way. I already hear a ringing in my ears all day so it interferes with testing. It sounds like a high pitch frequency.
I am Raiford Clemons from Portsmouth VA. I am 56 yrs old and I can hear the sounds up to 21 khz. I probably could hear them all if I wasn’t hearing the 8 khz sound continuously 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Yep, that means if I sit still and its sort of quiet in the room, I can hear that sound. That means if I’m not tired when I go to bed, I wear head phones listening to some music in order to go to sleep. Its been so long since I’ve been hearing this sound that I can’t remember when it started, but it has been longer than 20 years. Sometimes when people say “I don’t hear nothing” I wonder how nice it would be not to hear nothing.
I can hear something at each frequency, but I am afraid, what I hear at the higher frequencies is rather some noise generated by my audio equipment, than the high frequency sound. How to distinguish this?
It may sound strange but even frequencies I can’t hear I can still “feel.”
I am 16 years old, male, and have played piano most of my life and started learning percussion not much longer than a year ago. (playing piano made me advance in percussion faster) I can sometimes hear higher or lower frequencies, but probably not much more than 15khz. I currently can only hear up to barely 12khz so I’m obviously not doing too well. I can think of a few things that have probably given me hearing loss besides music. I used to have the ability to hear most of these, but I no longer can. At least I already know sign language.
30 years old, being around fire arms, Various military class helicopters, death metal bands (Live and practice room), function one sound rigs doing shows (Spinning and promoting) basically have thrown a lot at le old ears.
Being religious about ear defense/protection since before teenage years (Thanks to military dad) and it shows because all frequency’s can be heard loud and clear even at lower levels.
This test was pure curiosity done because my friend lost his hearing in his right ear from firing his weapon so much in a short amount of time so i thought “hey the internet will have a test for my ears”.
Thanks who ever made this you made me feel great
I am a 52 year old female. I heard 8, 10 and 12 but none of the others!
I have suffered bad hearing since I was a child which got worse after a hemorrhage 17 years ago.
I had a hearing test done at Specsavers a couple of years ago, which determined that I was just ‘borderline’.
What I can’t understand is, if you need glasses, but can still ‘see’ you are given glasses that bring your vision to within acceptable ranges, but it appears that a hearing test is done under extremely false conditions ie silent!!!! this is not the real world at all, and does not help me one iota when i am trying to hear my college lecturer in a loud class, nor when i am listening to the TV or radio or loud speaker (and heaven help me if I can’t see their mouth shaping to give me a clue!!!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE all audiologists, give the test under REAL circumstances!!!!!!!
We just want a chance to bring our hearing into line, to make our EAR SIGHT better if you will?????
27 years old, working background in industrial workspaces with a lot of noise, most of the time with hearing protection but a lot without too.
I can hear everything loud an clear upto 19khz, 20khz is a bit tougher but weirdly 21khz and 22khz are a bit easier (I had to turn up the volume, I skipped the first second to avoid the sound at start and had my girlfriend start the play with fake clicks but I still got them right every time).
I found this somewhat interesting, but with no actual knowledge I’d just guess that my ability to hear frequencies around that 20khz mark are slightly impaired, but a bit higher is somewhat intact still. I used to have very good ability to pick up high frequencies 10 years ago, to the point where my first employer wanted to double-check my hearing tests (which were done in a separate booth with headphones on so I couldn’t hear the buttons when they played or did not play the clips). I did better back then, obviously.
Used an slightly better than average consumer USB headset that goes up to 25khz, so just about enough for doing this test. Will probably redo this as I’m looking into investing a few hundred euros on headphones and an amp in the nearby future.
I couldn’t hear beyond the 14khz no matter how high the volume. I don’t understand m, n, s, f, unless I watch your lips. I did have hearing aides which made what I can hear too loud and ling ago abandoned them. I di hear wind for the first time with them which made me cry. I haven’t heard wind since, can’t hear a heart beat without amplification and rain has to be very loud on concrete or it looks silent. I can sing and play guitar and only if the vibration is off do I know if my tuning is wrong as I can’t hear it. I can’t sing without music and it needs to be loud. I have this hearing loss because my parents ignored my infections. When someone says can you hear this I get confused. Do I use thr sound or the vibration I asked the audiologist. Only hearing am I impaired. When you depend a lot on vibration, something as simple as can you hear this isn’t obvious.
For instance when I had a car I can’t hear the engine unless you gun it. But I can feel tue vibration. Never needed to look at the speedometer. Could tell by the vibration of the engine if going too fast. I can’t tell if my speech is clear either so I don’t talk much. But I must stress this above all else. Whstever hearing loss you have it doesn’t relate to smartness. Can’t begin to tell you how many think that if you don’t hear well you’re dumb and have had to correct people. One more thing that I’ve learned. Tell people you’re hearing impaired and how to communicate with you. Me? You look at me when you speak, don’t lower your voice or talk while you’re passing me. i can’t hear you. It’s not rudeness if I don’t respond, I can’t hear you. As obvious as it sounds, people aren’t mind readers. I have to tell people as much as it pains me to have a few still think that hearing loss means dimness. You don’t need to shout at hearing impaired and please remember that you don’t shout to deaf. If deaf or hearing impaired aren’t good enough speakers and they need to write, give them a pen and pad! Communication is hard enough without being treated like you have one brain cell because you don’t want to accomodate those who don’t hear good. We don’t intentionally want to frustrate you. I’m hearing impaired not stupid. You speak directly to me and speak normally I have no problem. I had to learn to explain things to people because I couldn’t fake it. My hearing is getting worse and I was tired of people thinking that if you can’t hear well you’re not too bright. It doesn’t offend me at all if someone says they can’t understand will you repeat. I will. If I get stared at I say I have a hearing problem that’s why my speech may not be as clear. Do you need me to repest and they say yes. It is amazing how many are understanding of being hearing impaired when you have no attitude about it. Took many years to stop having that attitude. People just didn’t know. Since I’ve always had a hearing problem that’s all I know. Technology helps if you can afford it, but you’ll always have a hearing problem. It’s taught me to listen better with what I have and I’ve learned to pay attention to what’s around and sneaking up on me doesn’t work. I can ‘feel’ your steps if you walk hard. Ha! Ha!
I’m 17 and i heard all of them which makes sense since i can hear pretty much anything….I must be part bat or something cause when i hear something and then say that i heard something my parents would say i’m crazy since of course they didn’t heard it.
p.s I play violin and having good hearing is a great advantage for one can hear the notes in the orchestra and one can stay in tune and etc. which i’m happy about
First round on laptop speakers at 30% volume I could hear 8-15kHz, 17kHz, & 18kHz. But 17 & 18 set off my tinnitus which I’ve had since childhood. (Very painful the times my ears would tell me, “this is the last you’ll ever hear so high. Enjoy iiiIIIIIIIIIIIT!”) Subsequent rounds, 17-22kHz just made the icy, hissing ringing worse, but were indistinguishable. I could hear 16kHz with headphones on at 30+.
I’m a 31 y.o. female who’s always been sensitive to & tried avoiding loud or high-pitched noise. Unfortunately, I grew up in a rambunctious family, who screams to speak & listens to everything on 11. Years ago my father installed squirrel repellers in the attic. They drove me crazy from inside my room & didn’t keep out animals. Now I can only hear the devices chirping when up in my parents’ attic.
Okay, just didn’t again – right before posting. Now that the construction outside has stopped, I can hear 17-22kHz at 90% volume with headphones. They sound like a fridge or an old TV running in another room; or a house phone ringing next door. At 100% volume speaker I can faintly hear 16-22kHz; 16 make me ears ache. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’m 35 years old, I work with music and I tried those sound on some cheap headphones made by Pioneer. Well to be honest if I turn the volume all the way up on my MacBook Pro trough this headphones Pioneer SE-CL711 I can hear all the way up clear on 15Khz. I do hear all of them but afer the 15Khz limit the pitch seems to decrease which is not normal as the sound goes up in frequency so I guess the headphones are playing a harmonic. They pretend to be 8Hz-22Khz and 105dB sensibility. They sound good but they are cheap headphones I doubt those figures. I don’t say I can hear over this 15Khz limit, I worked with music a lot in my life and I think maybe because of age plus hearing fatigue I may not be able to go after that, but clearly here is about a harmonic on the headphones. Then again at 17Khz it seems I hear it quite fair, then at 18Khz again is a fall and I hear a harmonic even downer than the first 16Khz who made the problem. So… Right now I’m in my car but when i go home I will fire up my main machine that’s using the following: Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 Mk II soundcard 20hz-20khz, my Tannoy Reveal 802, and also I must turn up the sub, a Temblor T10 from PreSonus which goes down under 20Hz with success but is rated at 20Hz. Since the Reveal 802 are rated at 43Khz I should be able to hear clear all the frequencies if my hearing is good. I trust those monitors, a lot of people are making music on them that’s why I bought them because I loved their sound. Also I will test with my most clear and unforgiven pair of headphones, the ATH-M50s from AudioTechnica. Well to be honest in bass i do go low as 12Hz even lower maybe and I do percieve the sound and not the vibration. Of course at 10Hz you can tell is a vibration but you don’t hear a shit. To be honest at 14Hz down the sub still sounds perfect to me. However those are tones generated with my DAW and some sine waves. I don’t have keys in Cubase to go up to 20Khz since they use a grand piano keyboard. Of course I can generate sounds using other techniques but I need monitoring to be sure is that specific frequency so samples are better. I tested once my hearing against some other pack of tests but I couldn’t trust them. Turned up the 20Hz sample was null and I got really scared, also the 30Hz… and I was like “hey I go deaf?” Then I touched my sub and he didn’t moved at all. When I generated my own 20Hz it was booming. Deep and thick and clear. So I cannot trust the samples in high register. I contacted the Admin and I told him about the samples problem and he said I’m stupid and I don’t hear well and things like that. What a douchebag. I do feel a decrease over 15khz in sound so I guess this is my threshold. I go home now to test it. I will write another review after.
I can hear all of them and the difference in tone
I am 61 years old and I spent a lot of time in the Military working around 300 thousand watt diesel powered field generators for 26 years. I spent lots of time in dance clubs (right in front of the speakers) all across Europe (it was a mission of mine to get to all clubs from the west coast to the border Russia and from Hamburg Germany to Sicily Italy) from the age of 21 – 38. I also had Koss Hv1 headphones which I used when at home and a Walkman (Sony’s iPod of the past) that I used when I was on the road.
From the Test, I could hear 8 – 12 at normal volume and 14 and 15 at higher volumes and nothing from the rest. I was using Marshall Monitor headphones plugged into a Denon 3802 Amp.
I am 51, male, with no history of hearing problems or significant exposure to loud noise.
Tried listening through speakers, then headphones, both of which supposedly reproduce close to 20KHz.
I can’t hear anything above the 10 KHz signal at my normal music listening volume. Can hear the 12KHz signal okay at much higher volume, and only just make out the 14KHz at almost maximum volume. Beyond that is complete silence to me.
I’m 42 and have tinnitus and it cuts off for me around 16 or 17khz (I can sense that it is there at 17khz, but don’t know if I am actually hearing it). I tested myself with an inexpensive laptop and an old set of earbuds from an iPod. I have had tinnitus since my 20’s but have practiced using hearing protection since then to prevent further hearing loss, so perhaps that is why my scores were not worse.
A word of warning: The sounds can be quite loud and so I advise people to start at no more than half volume so as to avoid damage.
I heard them all. My cat wickedy to. I was running around in circles trying to avoid the screech. It scared me I heard them so well. I was like GAHHHHHHH KILL THE NOISE! ITS BURNING MY POOR EARS!…. so ya my computer’s volume is even on 66. And those sounds are clear as day. So now im scared that a screech is gonna wake me up.
It’s odd, I could hear the 21 kHz, but I couldn’t hear the 19 kHz or the 20 kHz. Is there such a thing as selective frequency hearing? Or is it something else…?
i can’t even hear 10kHz on my 5-year-old Dell laptop. i want to insist i’m not losing my hearing (i’m 60+) but i concede i literally don’t know what i’m missing.
I’m 26 years old and I can hear them all except for 21kHz and 22kHz. Couldn’t even here those two full blast. Funny thing is that my left ear seems to be somewhat effected at the moment (pretty light though), like I’ve been to a concert; ringing sound. 9-15kHz were pretty piercing for myself, had to turn down the volume. Apparently animals can hear high frequency sounds, above 22kHz.
That was odd. At normal volume (34% on my Toshiba Satellite C55-B5300, what I use for Shirk/Shurk and other online music) I could hear as high as 19 kHz and “feel” all of them. That’s normal. I’ve gotten comparable results on other tests. However, what was weird was that when I turned up the volume (to 100%) I heard 20 kHz through to 22 kHz (again, as expected), but they all sounded the same (unexpected). Did my headphones reach their limit and just produce the highest tone that they could (using Sony Stereo Headphones MDR-ZX100)?
I am 47 years old.
When i first tried this sound test , i was only able to hear up to 12 kHz.
Then i listen to music for about two hours, with my Bose QuietComfort 15
Then i took the test again , result : i could hear up to 16 kHz
Could it be that my eardrums was warmed up to become more flexible , like when you warm up before doing flexible sport. ? ( Just a theory )
I’m 44 and I can hear all of these tones up through 22kHz. I have to turn my laptop volume all the way up, and I’m using Sony Professional MDR-7506 headphones. And yes, I can hear the tone, not just the click of the sound file and the interference.
I’ve always been protective of my hearing, though. I plug my ears when loud vehicles go by, and I don’t listen to loud music on headphones (even when I was a teen I didn’t). I had my hearing formally testing about 5 years ago and was told I can “hear bats”. I’m one of those people who can hear when a TV is on somewhere nearby, or a CRT monitor.
I am 29 years old, and I can clearly hear al lthe way up to 18khz, and and 19khz it’s definitely hearable, but not nearly as loud as 18khz.
20khz is “psuedo-noticable”, meaning that I’m not sure if I hear it or if I just *think* I do.
Alltho I’m positive that I would *feel* it on a higher volume!
I’m 19 and i can hear all of them. I don’t know why but I’ve been suffering from insomnia due to those sounds at night.
I’m 33 and heard them all , although I did have to try a few.times for a good wave entry into the ear – this happens because HF don’t spread as much like water (spherically outward so to speak) as low … if you haven’t heard the higher , try headphones or having your ear directly opposite from the speaker , but not close – turn it up so the wave forms properly , then try at incremental distances.
One thing I noticed and have heard about before , is people thinkng the lower tones they hear in the higher F tests , must be poor recordngs , that perceiving a lower tone = lower F … what actually happens , is that in the ear , the Fs picked normally , are picked up in the normal chambers/coil in the cochlear , but the higher ones are NOT , and sound lower , because we do not normally hear them , and they are not normally produced as a by product compared to everyday squaks and sqeals from natural materials (trees, water, air, etc) , sometimes they are in short bursts , or at places like electricity relay stations (a beautiful chorus of noises … aaaaah) , … where was I … we don’t normally process sound in these other canals / or we normally don’t pay attention to signals that deep into the middle bends of the cochlear , so our conscious process’ing’ of the signals , is misinterpreted somewhere inbetween, basically – not neccessarily here , not neccessarily there , but it doesn’t really matter exactly where – its that your brain isn’t used to recognising / processing the signals because they aren’t natually produced very often (particle storms, geomagnetic byproducts? whatever whackadoodle theories) – whereas dogs , not CAVE dwellers , need to be able to follow bats , etc , so theirs is more used to it , etc .
you would think bats being in caves should = more exposure to HF , but its not just quantity of exposure , its being able to perceive something useful from bats sonar (hearing some ‘soundscape’ from , but not being able to create the F)
we haven’t needed to -following grass trails , using calendars , symbolic markings , etc , have facilitated more reliable ways of scavenging.
and as for cats … ha! hunters dying of starvation in sytle as sleek killers , but dying nevertheless … arrrrrrrrroff!
so don’t stress , oh ye fat beats consumers and lovers … emphasise cave like and non cave like echoes/acoustics , as far as I’m concerned , ampitheatres are a waste of money 😀
I am 54 and have tinnitus, I can only hear up to 10 which is the exact noise I have in my ears all the time – interesting
protect your ears from loud noises guys
I have made 41.75 orbits around the sun. So I am 41 years and 9 months old.
I can hear the 18khz clearly through my Access Virus TI sound card, a Kenwood hi-fi amp, and Technics speakers.
19khz is very faint, which makes me think if my speakers were decent studio monitors I may possibly hear it.
I did try with my Sennheisser headphones, but they have degraded a lot in the last year or so, and seemed to lose reproduction at around 15khz, hence, hence why I tried the hi-fi.
I am rather happy to know that at my age I could clearly reference the 18khz sinewave.
First tried it on laptop and the best IT could do is 16 (so be careful with them they just cut some frequencies). Trying it on desktop with good 96/128 maudio card and nice Sennheiser headphones I could hear up to 21. What is strange is that I can hear 21 very clear (just not so loud as first ones) but 19 and 20 are very faint and I had to play them over couple times to make sure it is them and not the coolers noise in pc or other ambient noise. I’ve tested them with desktop default card and to my surprise result is the same, just a little bit more noisy sound.
I am 76 years old and have ridden motorcycles all my life most often without using earplugs as I have bikes with full screens these days. I can only hear just about to 10 KHz from my monitor speakers. I have problems understanding what people are saying in noisy places. In my younger days I could hear to 19Khz. I worked in underwater acoustics and could often hear transducers operating under water.
Interesting test and far better than one I came across on you tube…
My results were interesting as I’m 40 years old…
Using my laptop speakers (Toshiba L875D) and a set of external Altec Lansing VS4621 speakers I could hear almost every up tone up to 21 Khz (faintly) with one exception I couldn’t hear the 16 Khz at all on both not sure if that is due to an issue with my ears or with the audio file.
Using two different sets of in ear headphones (Don’t have my other earphones on hand) (Sony NC-100D) and a mid line V-Moda I could hear up to 15Khz beyond that nothing which I suspect is more a case of the limits of the earphone’s frequency response than anything else.
I could hear all of them, 21 and 22 I wasn’t so sure on, I had to play them back a few times because I wasn’t sure if it was just the fuzzy background noise I was hearing, or the actual tone- but I’ve done these before on ones of… Good quality… I’m 21, inching up on 22, still hear these as clearly as I always have, so I’m not losing my hearing yet- feels like it sometimes though, my right ear doesn’t hear as well as my left so sometimes when people are talking to me, especially when there’s a lot of background noise I turn my head to the right so my left ear faces them. Which I find a little weird because when I fire I fire left handed so all the noise is on my left ear, I’ve even had my left plug fall out on me while shooting, quite often actually when the butt nudges my ear or jaw it wiggles its way out, I’m not complaining though, I like my hearing.
I can hear 16 and below, and then 20-22. My left ear has hearing loss, as I had many ear infections in it. It only hears up until 14 and nothing else.
I am 14, and only heard 14 and below, I tried it on multiple computers with the same results. Weird… I could barely hear 15, but I could “feel” it more than I could “hear” it. I did this in my Physics class and everyone else could hear the tones around 19 and below.
I am 53 and I can hear 20 and below in my right ear and 12 and below in my left. I did not expect this because I am using a laptop. I found out I got better results when I used my earphones instead of the laptop speakers. I already know I have a hearing problem because of my time in the military and on t he flight line.
I’m 3 months short of 52, and I can hear 19khz on my laptop speakers – I have pretty good speakers in my laptop. When I was 15, I delivered newspapers, and found that one of my customers had a TV that made a noise I could hear before I got to his house. I couldn’t tell if it was on visually until I actually got to his front porch, where I could see him thru his picture window, watching TV. I found that in the winter time, I could hear his TV from about half a block away.
I worked with computers in my 20’s and 30’s, and would often catch my friends with their computers turned off, but their monitors still turned on – some of the older ones didn’t have a power on light – but I could hear the hum. Most of my friends were around my age, and they couldn’t hear it.
My 13 year old son took me to a site like this 6 months ago, and it had ages listed for the sound frequencies – I thought my score on that site was worse, but I think I could still hear as well as a 32 year old – at least by that sites standards. He thought it was so funny that I couldn’t hear the rest of the sounds he could hear. I didn’t think it was funny.
I’m glad that a lot of you can hear all the frequencies. I’m 29 and in my right ear I can’t hear 12 and 14 then 17 thru 22. My left ear stops at 17. I know that I have hearing loss just not sure how bad or if I should get it checked out but this test has helped to show me that maybe I should get them checked. Thanks.
I cannot hear past 12Khz. I’m 17, is this something I should be worried about? I used just my laptop speakers then I used apple headphones then I hooked it up to my Sony stereo system which I know is capable to play past these tones. Neither made any difference to me I still cannot hear past 12Khz
I’m only 16 and I couldn’t hear number sixteen at all. Wow.
Anyone on here that can hear over 15 is in denial or lying.
The technology used here to compress the audio limits upper frequencies, like MP3 compression.
I can’t hear over 15,000 yet in my dedicated Tone generator. I can hear upto 19,600khz
Go figure.
I can hear up to 22khz with the volume up on my speakers. But 21 and 22 didn’t seem as high somehow. I found 17 was more of a feeling and probably the most painful. I have a slight headache now after all that!
I am quite sensitive to pitches, electrical sounds are constantly getting on my nerves and when I was younger and passing a particular house on my street I would get quite a painful reaction to the garage from a device he used to keep cats away apparently.
I’m 25 and I think I’m still quite sensitive to these sounds. when on a bat walk they told us some (not many) people are about to hear the bats without a detector. I couldn’t unfortunately but interesting to know that some people can hear those frequencies (around 45khz for the ones we were detecting)
No-one should take seriously a online hearing test, it is a useful guide in determining parameters of your hearing frequency.
Audiologists and Audiotometrists should give you a complete and functional assessment, if you are at concerned you may not be able to detect certain frequencies .
I found it within the Parameters of my own results in a quiet environment NOT soundproofed. Good luck and have fun.
Ok, so this is what I found using a KRK Rocket studio monitors and an audiophile sound card.
I can hear every frequency range up to and including 21khz with the volume turned right up. Strangely 21khz is louder than 20khz although that may be the acoustics of the room.
17 18 and 19 khz are piercing at normal volumes and give me a bad headache. I really have to crank the gain up to hear 20 and 21 khz. I can hear something at 22khz but I’m guessing its a harmonic.
I’m 30 and have been listing to loud music all my life, djing for 15 years in loud clubs with high pressure headphones and producing electronic music at home. I noticed my hearing was starting to fade so I had them syringed last year – what a revelation. I highly recommend it.
I can barely hear 14 khz and im only 15years old. I am a musician though.
I’m a musician (hobby) with a very good ability to tune instruments and pin down unwanted noises from guitar setup etc. But at 59 the highest frequency I hear as a pure musical note using whatever headphones I can find, is 12KHz. I can hear 14 and 15 as a ‘ghost’ of a higher note, beyond this there is so much lower harmonic sound being generated I can’t really detect the source pitch. If I concentrate, I can hear what I believe to be the generated frequency up to 19KHz but it’s so faint I could not call it hearing. Even in the quietest room of the house, other things as common as light bulbs are adding their own sounds and I don’t have any tight-fitting earbud headphones, or any fully enclosed (I have always preferred open back sets so that I can at least be spoken to!). The test is impossible on my iMac as it makes so much noise. I’d have to switch the power off for the house to get any kind of silence.
I can, however, hear most so-called inaudible dog whistles. And the cat is completely unbothered by my playing all the higher frequencies direct out of a laptop. Maybe it just is not reproducing them.
I visited here when investigating auto gain defeating systems for DSLR video. They use 20KHz noise on one of the stereo inputs to ‘fix’ the gain and you are supposed to use the other side as a mono track, deleting the AGC-defeat signal track. Since 20KHz is effectively inaudible, I don’t see why it should not just be played into the stereo mic input both channels, and removed by using a narrow band 20KHz cut filter.
David
Turned my speakers up a bit (not a lot) to listen:
I am 46 and always had good hearing.
8 and 10 were painful, felt like going to the Dentist!
I could hear up to and including 16. Called in my 6 year old son – come here boy and test my computer sound :-). He could hear up to and including 20, easily. After this point the speakers are probably not doing much so he couldnt hear those.
Guess age and loud stuff when I was younger is kickin in now – pfff.
Good fun test, and useful too.
It has also made me realise I can convert my CDs to MP3 without worrying about sound quality – because I cant hear top end anymore – ah well a silver lining to my cloud…
I’m an old 55 and listend to a lot of loud music back in the 70’s and 80’s. I can hear 8 with both ears. I can hear 10 with my right ear, but not my left.
What’s that you’re sayin’ sonny?
Oh, and I meant to say that crickets appear to chirp at about 10 — I can hear them with my right, but not my left ear. That’s how I discovered I am loosing my hearing.
Well i for one is about to turn 21 and hate my range of hearing trie to download the 23khz no probs at all hearing it and beeing within a 10meters range of a old fat tv is close to unbarable thankfully flat ones generate allot less sound. honestly i consider thoose with a tad worse hearing the lucky ones and by that i mean is you don’t have to get anoyed when the laptop charger is plugged in or if your sitting to close to a lamp becaus you can actualy hear the power flowing trough the filament
whats even more annoying is that it is probebly going to be another 10 years b4it stops bothering me even though i’ll probebly still be able to hear some of it.
I’m 47 and can just about hear the 14 test. I wondered though if it’s my hearing that has blunted or just my sound equipment. Im just using a cr*ppy PC with onboard audio…
Im 14 and I heard all of them except the last one… My cat kind of freaking out though… XD
To reply to the comment made earlier:
I read that a great musician can hear even at 20khz!!! LOL … That’s epic…
Beethoven was went deaf so it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have the music inside your head!
I can hear up to 15 on my good and 14 on my bad ear 😐 I’m 27 and been in some loud clubs, had a starting pistol shot off next to my bad ear twice, and been close to big ass firecrackers going off.
I’m using zenheiser hd 555 headphones and using a soundblaster on linux. The drivers might not be perfect but I think it could be correct. If I had to trade the lost frequencies for the experiences loud music gave me then I’d do it again 🙂
I can hear through 12 just fine, then nothing at 14, but I can hear, faintly, 15. This seems odd. Both ears respond the same, separately or together.
I am 23 and I could hear up to 20khz but 21 and 22 were a negative.
Former Navy fighter pilot now airline pilot 57yo raised on Jimi Hendrix et al. 12K is the highest I can hear. Can’t use any wristwatch alarm because they no longer “compute”. Bummer!
i can only hear up to the 15 kHz, my 10 year old son can hear up to 19 kHz, and my 6 year old daughter can hear up to 17 kHz.
I could only hear up to the 15 kHz. But, im 40 so i don’t know if im doing good or not.
I’m 40, with a history of using loud car stereos, and I can hear all of them loudly and clearly. I think something’s wrong with the recordings. Isn’t the pitch supposed to sound like it’s continuously going up when you increase the frequency? 22K sounds lower than alot of the others. Maybe they’re mislabeled or something.
I’m 18. I’m a professional musician from Russia, I hear 22kHz 🙂
I was able to hear till 21 KHz clearly. I could hear 22 KHz as well but it phased in and out. I did this using headphones. I guess I’m lucky to be able to hear this range at 26. I do try to take care of my ears though and try to minimise their exposure to loud noises. But then, nowadays walking on the street damages your hearing bit by bit 🙁
human ears can only hear to about 20hKz max. if you are in the 18-19 range, you are doing fine.
im 16 and i can only hear something up to 15 kHz
What bloody bulls***.
All those that say there is noise etc should get their ear cleaned!
These are pure sine wave test tones, and don’t habe any noise (noise floor would be -100 dB) – you don’t believe, why don’t you download and open the file with any digital audio editor.
I can;t hear anything above 14kHz
:'(
Many soundcards are aliasing the frequencies above 16khz so the test may FAIL. If soundcard is aliasing then sine wave is not reconstructed correctly and the frequency will be different and will sound like noise. It is more a soundcard and speaker test as it is hearing test.
Hi, I’m 34, male, with perfect vision. I can hear all the above sounds, in fact in a more scientific test I’ve been able to hear sounds all the way up to 25 khz, I’ve recently bought a cat scarer which pulses from 18k to 27k and I hear most of the sounds it produces, albeit very quietly. So I guess there’s nothing wrong with my hearing either! 🙂
Hey, I tested these frequencies with a frequency meter and it seems they are quite accurate! Interesting comments by the way…
I used to have great hearing until i poked a whole in my eardrum. Now its worse, but i could still hear them all. Although i couldn’t hear 22k i could feel the vibration in my ears (If its of any importance i had the sound volume lowest possible and my computers volume midway).
question: would ones hearing improve when listening to tones above 15000hz
like evolution of dogs and cats can hear better because they are more attentive than we to such sounds
could we increase our hearing by listenening to such sound at very low volume?
just a question 🙂
My 11-year-old daughter and I took it (I’m 46). I could hear the tones pretty easily up to to 17 but 18 and 19 were a stretch for me. She heard up to 20. Lately I’ve felt as if my hearing’s not as good as it used to be so this was kind of reassuring.
I can listen to 21 kHz easily, but my radio can’t play this freq. I need use the phone, but it doesn’t play more 22kHz. I have 14 years old and I don’t like listen music very loud.
Why not just provide audio file downloads instead of making your website horrible by excessive use of an oudated techonology (flash)?
I am 38 years old. I cannot hear anything over 14. Too many rock concerts in my teen years???
39, and I could hear through 17. 18 was perceptible, and the only way I could “hear” 19 was because I noticed a drop-off in the ringing in my ears I have from tinnitus, which picked back up again when the sound ended.
I listened on a laptop with mid-grade studio monitors, with a lot of background noise. I have better equipment but can’t get to it right now.
I have tinnitus from years and years surrounded by very loud music in clubs and concerts or in cars with loud systems, or just with headphones or earbuds jammed in my ears. It’s a wonder I can hear at all, especially the frequencies that I can. Take care of your ears, kids!
In terms of music you shouldn’t terrible worry if you can’t hear these high ranges as they are very rare in music.
For example most musical instruments don’t go past 4khz and humans can only sing up to about 2khz.
Extreme low bass on the other hand occurs much more often.
Age 43, sennheiser earphones, I can hear up to 17 but not 18. It appears I am not as deaf as I thought I was… and this is after YEARS of aural abuse with loud metal on the Walkman as a teen and young adult.
I’m not sure hear is the right word for what I’m doing, but I am aware of all frequencies and the top ones really hurt my head. Also, I hear 21 kH just about every day. It’s bad when I’m normal, but when I have a headache it makes me sick. Literally.
as i can’t hear the 14 kHz, i don’t like these high tones at all so i don’t care about the loss to hear those, but doesn’t it mean my other hearing might be affected too?
I Can hear up to 19KHZ and i am 33 i have always enjoyed Relay loud bass and very Hi quality mid and hi,s and also there is a factor to loud sounds and pure tones. i am heavy in to car audio and there is a thresh hold that you can tolerate hi volume for only so long and you get a headache. i have been in 150+ DB environments and i have great hearing My apology for my spelling it is nutroshis. The groups of people i hang around with call it developing your hearing almost like working a mussel we do listen to hi volume and it seams that are hearing is in fact becoming more attuned as we can hear things we could not before. i is strange but it is something all of us experience as we listen to a clean signal we have seen that people that listen to distorted music at high volumes tend to have a hard time hearing but if you listen at the same volume on very high quality sound system there is no negative repercussions that we have experienced. and this is after many many years of observation. Now no way am i a doctor and in no way do i understand the inner working of the ear completely but i do believe that people as a hole do not always respond the same way to everything namely me and my car audio crew we do take sound test and pass with impeccable flying colors why others that do not listen to loud music fail badly, its kinda like were born for it.
Nice test!!! really enjoyed
My 32 years old hears heard up to 17kHz easily, and barely heard the 18kHz.
Friends at work: A 34 years old heard up to 14kHz and a 38 heard up to 12kHz. Both are men, does it matter?
I’m 25 and heard up to 17kHz – on subsequent recordings I could hear some lower pitched background noise instead of a high frequency.
I don’t actually have very good hearing… well, having said that I have always been able to hear fairly high frequencies, especially when I was in high school. I’m just no good at hearing specific sounds when there is a lot of background noise – like when I’m talking to a person in a busy place, I have to ask people to repeat themselves a lot because I can’t make out their voices properly.
My Dad is the same, so I seem to have inherited whatever’s wrong with my ears/brain.
First, I’m 24 and my ears are in really good shape, they got tested to doctors because i heared things that other people didn’t/couldn’t. Second, i have a brand new Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty with also brand new Bose headphones (so, the combination is perfect, isn’t it?). I disabled all the effects (crystallizer, CMSS-3D, etc…). I didn’t used the sounds here because i think they are compressed so they lose quality. I made my owns. I can “hear” at 21khz but with absolutely no surrounding sounds and with high concentration. I’ve switched from 20khz(perfectly audible) to 21khz(audible between heartbeats) just to be sure it was really a sound i was hearing. So, yeah, it’s possible to hear 21khz but don’t expect the sound to be loud even if it’s at high decibel, and don’t try to listen it at high decibel, even if you don’t hear it, it still can damage your ear.
I’m 57 and can still hear 15KHz, but not these tones here. There seems to be some sort of aliasing going on; probably my sound card. So I went ahead and plugged my AF signal generator into my hifi to check my hearing. 15K is perceptible, but nothing over. Which is a miracle at my age, considering all the hard rock I’ve listened to.
If you hear something other than a pure ringing sensation on the frequencies above about 10K, probably your sound card can’t play these high frequencies properly.
I used a Claro Halo soundcard on WIN7 and some Sony XB700s. I can hear up to 16khz on volume 22, I’m 19.I can hear everything if i turn up the volume high enough but what’s the point of that, i don’t listen to music at that high of volume, I don’t think anyone does. People should post what they hear at a relatively normal music volume.
16-17kHz somewhere between these two values is my upper limit. I tested using ASUS Xonar DS soundcard and an AIWA stereo with 3-way speaker and 35W. I’m 26 years and I listen to very loud music every week at my home(Techno, Trance, Hardcore), but I’m not using headphones at all. I guess that’s why I still hear pretty well. I read that a great musician can hear even at 20khz!!! LOL … That’s epic… I’m curious about the sound levels animals hear 🙂 A Bat, a wolf, a dolphin, I think they understand music better than humans x:D
My 9 year old can hear 19 kHz, my 8 year old can hear 16kHz, and my 41 year old ears can hear 14 kHz. Interestingly, the 9 year old has vision problems. Good to know his ears are working overtime!
f***… im 21. wearing beats by dre to listen to this. and i cant hear above 14. might be a lil def i think. too much bass culture music probably the cause of this
Beats by Dr.Dre aren’t made for these kind of sounds. They are made for rap and hip-hop, which is bass and mid sounds based. So don’t expect to hear something as high as these!
Beats by Dre have a frequency response of 20hz-20Khz, so they actually can play those tones. Hope that didn’t come off to matter-of-factly, just a clarification!
While true that they have a frequency response, it’s not a flat frequency curve. Meaning that some frequencies are played louder than others. This is normal, every headphone have this. This is why some headphones are called bassy, some are called trebley, some are called neutral, V-shaped, mid-centric, and so on.
Beats by Dre are definitely bassy, meaning that there’s a compromise made by design to make them bassy. It could very well be that they have a very quiet frequency response at higher frequencies.
Try a similarly priced Grado, Denon or Ultrasone and see if their frequency response is louder at higher frequencies.
You can look at graphs of this at headphone.com
That said, I wouldn’t trust results coming from Beats by Dre headphones. They are barely mid-fi in the land of headphones, despite their high price tag. Most Hi-Fi headphones start somewhere around $800 and goes up to thousands and thousands of dollars, like the upcoming Final Audio Design Muramasa at $8000 (yes, eight thousand dollars).
Mid-Fi headphones usually start somewhere around $150-$200 and up.
Lo-Fi like Beats by Dre usually stay under $150, except for the Beats by Dre, but the Beats are a celebrity headphone meaning that their price is not meant for the sound quality, but for the “hip status” they provide among friends, and so on. In other words, Beats by Dre are “bling-bling” for young people.
This is because Beats by Dre use cheap drivers so their ability to reproduce sound cleanly is poor, very poor. If anything I’d say they are able to reproduce most of the frequencies hearable after a notable amount of sound loss, everything above that is severely rolled off.
im 13 and i can hear 17khz easily but nothing at 18khz ???????
With a set of in-the-ear ‘phones I can try each ear by itself: My left ear I can barely hear 12Khz, in my right ear I can hear 12Khz but 14Khz only when I dial the volume to max. After 14Khz, nothing. I am 42. I think if I’d taken care of my hearing I’d have done better. Moral: If you’re ever going to see Motorhead in concert take some earplugs! It may not be cool to wear them but it’s cooler than it is to miss the finer point of what people are trying to communicate to you for the rest of your life!
No kidding, saw them once at a local club and it was the only time I’ve ever asked for a set of plugs, lol. And I thought Fear Factory was loud!!
im 22, i can hear to 20..i tink i can make 21 wit a better sound card and headphones tho
I’m 23 years old. I could hear up to 18 clearly, 19 is debatable. I could feel the vibrations on my ear drum I think and it felt like a whistle inside my head. I dunno, it was odd. Same with 20 and 21.
I can hear them all on ”normal” speaking volume I’m 18 Years and have high quality speecers (Excuse my spelling XD) I saw on some on the first half of comments (didint read the rest) that some ppl are….very stuborn that no-one can hear over the 20khz but…I hear em all clear, theyre not painfully loud to me that I also saw someone write, thogh if i increase the volume they might be XD. but anyways to those stubborn people , have you got in mind that every persons genes arent exactly the same as the people you took these test’s on? no need to be superhuman, I have a worse vision but better hearing, if that has something to do whit it 😛 so…If you say I can’t hear over 20khz…you’r tests are proven wrong or you’r just making things up, I also tried this with 2 Different headphones at the same and lower volume, (difrent headphones 😛 1okay one and a realy goodone xD) and I still Heard both 21kHz and 22kHz. so The human ear CAN take up 21kHz and 22kHz IF you have good genes for hearing
So here’s the thing:
#1 MOST regular / average speakers may claim to have a frequency response exceeding the 20Khz you mentioned.
-However- even IF they are able to reproduce that frequency, they are not likely to provide enough sound pressure for someone to hear it.
I.E. you have to have a set of speakers that are designed to reproduce that high a frequency loud enough to actually be audible. (that doesn’t mean turn the volume up as loud as it will go, either.)
#2) The average human can hear up to and just around the 20 – 22 KHz frequencies provided the qualifications mentioned above are met.
In order to hear these high frequencies you must have REALLY GOOD HEARING, and not just be “young”.
I am a 46 year old musician and studio hack.
I own a pair of M-Audio studio reference monitors in my recording studio. They have a frequency range up to 20 Khz. and are pretty flat in their response. (meaning that all frequencies in the speakers range are supposedly reproduced at the same pressure they were asked to.)
I cant exactly say I “heard” the 20 Khz signal, but I did feel it. I definitely didn’t hear the 21 Khz signal- my speakers wont reproduce it. In fact, I could feel all the samples above 20 Khz, but I could only imagine that each one was a higher tone.
This is a text book example of what happens when you exceed your speakers capabilities. If you do exceed them, but you can feel it ( cause there’s no possible way for you to actually hear it ) then your speakers are receiving the signal but are incapable of reproducing it with any real sound pressure or accuracy. This doesn’t mean your speakers are junk or that they are the greatest, it just means you asked it to do more than it can.
If you take a 1979 Ford Pinto out on the highway and ask it to go 140 MPH you better be on a steep downward slope to even get close. you may get to 100, but its gonna take a bit and it sure isn’t gonna give you good steering and traction.
A very good point, but don’t forget that this are compressed samples. This has a number of effects on the sound as well.
1: Most compressors are designed for music and speech reproduction, not for pure tone replication. They won’t be geared to reproduce these high notes and in some compressors those frequencies would be filtered out, to save space.
2: as stated above the compressors are not designed for pure tone especially at those high notes, so your likely hearing a resonance of that frequency rather than the frequency it’s self.
For all this who can hear 19+ there is a lot of background noise and iinterference on these recordings. They are not well done.
Many who say they can hear frequencies+20 are picking up this.
I too can hear frequencies but they are not 19 20 21 22.
The test tones are flawed.
I cant hear 19+ but i tested it with my golden Retriever that was sleeping near my notebook and was really interesting to see it wake up with the 22, like she nevere heared something like that…
You are correct, 19khz and above can not be heard through my laptop speakers because the speakers could not reproduce sounds this high on the frequency range. I am 30 years old and could here them all except 19khz and above, i had my dog next to me and he was asleep, he could not hear 19khz and above either, it was when i played 18khz that his ears perked up and he looked directly at the laptop. I haven’t tried yet, but try playing the sounds through a stereo that is capable of reproducing that high of a frequency and see if you can hear. My guess is since these are so flawed you will be able to.
I recommend that no one takes this test seriously unless you have a really decent soundcard/headset wich ensures this test it’s full quality.
im 23 and i can hear all of them. . .
i 1st thought it was because of the speakers, so i tried headphones and a portable speaker.
but i still heard them all…
it doesn’t shock me because i have to unplug all the cellphone chargers at night because i can hear them making noise, otherwise i can’t sleep…
stuff used:
eeepc 4g surf/xp
Cambridge soundworks sw310
zipy portable speaker
result of all this testing:
MASSIVE headache…
ikr? I can’t sleep if anything is plugged in, sometimes even if things aren’t, because I hear the electricity humming in the walls. I get the worst migraine waiting for the train, because I hear the electricity humming in the cables the train runs on, too. It’s awful…
Hi, do you hear those high pitched noises even when there is no train and when your outside not near housing? I’m trying to find out what the high pitched sound I hear all the time, I am a musician and have been on the road for decades, my Doc says I’m having hearing lose. If I am it’s no where near this loud noise I hear, very bad in the late day, any similarity s? Thanks, any help is good help, God Bless…Eddie
You realize the electric trains run on direct current in the range of 400 – 800 volts. DC doesn’t make noise.
I am the exact same. When i was younger (8yrs old) i told my parents that i could hear the rodent repellers plugged into the sockets, they looked at me as though i was crazy. Im now 20 yrs old and i still hear them. They make me cry with the pain when im in the house. Its hard to plug them out because i saw a mouse in my room that same night i plugged it out. I live in the countryside in Ireland so there’s alot of mice and rats especially.