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.
i can hear 22 and i’m only 11?!omfg O_O
There’s a fault with this test. There is no correct volume of how you should take this test. I had my ear buds plugged in and had the volume low and only heard up to 18Hz but by simply turning up the volume I was able to hear to 22Hz.
i am 41 & i hear only 8-10 khz 🙁
that is because your ear is too “old” and the frequency of the sound it is too high
i’m 14 and i can hear all of them really easy but 22 is very faint
I am 72 and cannot hear any of the sounds. My ears cut out around 3-4 khz.
This is not suitable to test your ears if you have not good soundcard and earphones (or speaker) which is resond 8-22Khz freq. flat.
My onboard soundcard respond below: (mesured with true RMS multimeter)
8Khz => 514 mV AC
10khz => 500mV AC
12khz => 512mV AC
14Khz => 516mV AC
15Khz => 506mV AC
16Khz => 488mV AC
17Khz => 458mV AC
18Khz => 404mV AC
19Khz => 316mV AC
20Khz => 208mV AC
21Khz => 116mV AC
22Khz => 63mV AC
I’m 19 and can barely here 17. :/
First it is hear not here and second its perfectly fine I could only hear 17 on my computer speakers but when I got my beat headphones I could clearly hear 22.
I’m 25, i can hear up to 20khz and get a faint tone with 21khz. I’m a producer and have been to too many raves.
It seems i’m very lucky.
Weird, i can hear 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, then i cant hear 17 and 18 khz but THEN i can hear 19, 20, 21, 22 how come i cant hear 2 frequencies between lots of other ones that i CAN hear???
I’m 14 and i can hear up to 18:/
i am 12 and i can hear 21 hz
I’m 15 and can hear up to 26 kHz.
Really? Cuz I’m 11 and I can only hear up to 20 kHz
I’m 20 years old and I listen to loud music all the time and I heard all the way up to 19khz, but my computer fan was on at the time so it was faint, and 18khz was pretty much clear. probably would have been better with a silent room.
There is a HUGE problem with this test!!!
First of all, 99% of all sound cards in your possessions CANNOT correctly reproduce these very high frequencies (above 16-19kHz)!
Equally, there is almost no headphones in earbud category that can reproduce any sound above 15kHz at loudness equal to the lower frequencies. It means, if you have a decent headphones, you have to tweak the sound via EQs a lot. And it is not a simple task as you might think. For example, over 250$ Sennheiser CX980 inears reproduce the 18kHz sound over 25dB quieter than they do the 5kHz sound. If you know that human ear perceives 10dB increase as twice as loud, it means a lot. There is a chance, with the background noise present, you wan’t even hear that tones with your HEALTHY ears.
If you really want to test your ears, you have to buy same decent equipment and play with it for a while!
You are bang right.
I am pleased to see somebody make that point about all these online sound test thingy’s
As you say you would need a Dr’s surgery containing an oscilloscope to perform this test properly.
im 31 and can hear upto 14. 15 is silent for me. is that bad? im using earphones
I’m 47 and could barely hear the 12 and nothing above.
13 all the way to 22
i am 17 and i could hear up to 18
I’m almost 19, a musician, and heard all of them. Hmm.
im 19, only one i couldnt hear was 22 ( with a headset )
Hi, I’m 46yrs I can only hear up to 10kHz!
I am 17 and I could everything, what volume should your laptop be at?
I’m 15, I wear headphones a lot and i couldn’t hear only 22kHz.
I am 53 I didn’t go to many concerts but I was in the Navy for over 15 years. I worked on aircraft carriers. I can only hear up to 12 khz in my right ear only to 10 khz in my left. trust me loud music isn’t worth it.
22… i can hear all the way to 16 =( what a shame!
I,m 52 cant hear any thing
I am 27 and I could hear up to 18khz.
Turning 30 next week, and could hear up to 19. I feel lucky. 🙂
im 19 stopped hearing at 18hz
Nobody can legit hear 21 and 22. The human range of hearing is only to 20khz. This test is also not accurate due to the fact that many speakers can not accurately produce those frequencies. If you turn up the volume on a stereo insanely loud, you’ll probably hear all of them, do them all with same volume. Even still, if you can hear 18 and above, I say congrats, I cant hear 20 without cranking the volume
33 years old, can hear thru 16 kHz fine, barely hear 17 kHz. I agree with some previous posters…is it my ears? Is it the soundcard in the computer? Is it the speakers? Am I truly hearing the fundamental frequency, or distortion? Not a scientific test by any stretch, but still interesting.
Im getting to hear 21 with a lot of difficult…
I could hear all of them with headphones, but up to 19 w/out (im 17)
first I heard up to 17khz but after that I turned up the volym to max and could hear up till 21khz
( I turned up the volym *3 more)
I just turned 19 made to 20 then I could only hear the speaker stop making the noise if that makes sense
I am 19, used to play the piano and am blind. I can hear all of them without difficulty.
15 and I could hear 20 kHz
I’m 13 and I could only hear the 8kHz
I’m 26 and couldn’t hear 15kHZ or higher. my fiance is 18 but can only hear 16kHZ and no higher.
When I turned the volume up on the laptop she could hear 16kHz but not any higher. I’m still stuck down on 14 however loud it goes!
I am so freaked out i could her up to 22!! i have the worst headache of my life now 🙁 but i guess i must have rly good hearing cus my dog like spazzed out and now i feel sorry lol
Im 17 am hear up to 18 kHz. Tried it on my dad 47 and he heard 12 kHz
I can hear up to 18khz but I feel something in my ear all the way up to 21khz.
I am 16.
I’m pretty sure my speakers cut out at like 20 cause they crackled a little but I couldnt hear anything after that
I am 17 and I could hear up to 19!
im 16 and i can hear up to 21 hrz almost up to 22………is that normal
I am 19, and I can hear all of them aside from 21kHz, including 22kHz. With my volume all the way up, that is.
I’m 19 and I can hear through 17 khz on my computer
I’m 23 and i could hear up to 16khz
i just tried it on my mum (54) and she stopped hearing it after 10khz
I’m 18 and a lifelong musician; can’t hear past 14. Too bad… I could hear the lower harmonics on the higher pitched ones though.
Im 15 & I could hear up to 18hz…is that bad??? I constantly listen to my ipod and i use the noise insulating inner earphones…But from time to time my left ear cant hear as well as the right when i listen to a song
I’m 26, I can hear up to 18khz easily. 19 is hard, 20 and 21 are extremely hard but I can barely make out the pitch, and 22 is a bit easier than 21 or 22. Of course I’m listening with some cranked up studio reference speakers.
I could hear up to 19 easily, I think I heard 20 unless that is just a faint ringing in my hears from all the tests before haha. 17 years of age by the way, not to bad for being front row at concerts all the time
I’m 18, I listen to music all the time, and I can hear everything up to 19, 20 is where it stops for me.
I am 16 and can hear up to 20 khz
Age 18. I can hear up to 17kHz. Drummer who didn’t wear hearing protection up until a year ago.