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.
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, Iย 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.
28-can hear all of them equally well
I’m a 52 y/o female, and I hear 15 loud and clear, and 16 just dimly.
I work in film and have worked a lot with headphones, but mostly dealing with dialog, and not at high levels.
I have taken care of my hearing, do not listen to music loudly or via ipod very much, and use earplugs when partying / listening to bands.
To do this in an anecoic chamber would be cool.
26. Musician. Lots of loud music. I hear them all but I’m listening on my nearfeilds and there are unavoidably other frequencies in ultra high range happening in my house that i can’t control. From 18 up there is a significant difference in what I hear, as though there is a major amplitude drop, but, what I notice perhaps more is the way that the harmonies of those ambient upper harmonics in my room are changed while the frequency is ringing.
I’m 15 and can only hear up to 15. i do listen to my ipod pretty much every moment of the day even as i’m going to sleep. and i also play guitar quite loudly so this could be why. Also i noticed i’m always asking people to repeat themselves sometimes several times because it feels like their mumbling. maybe its just me lol
Don’t worry about it. Most of the time it’s because people do NOT speak distinctly … something to do with a measure of laziness and a measure of shyness … Dialects and weird accents f*** me up very much now that I’m 63 – stuff I had no trouble with when I was your age (?)
I can hear 19. I’m 57 and play in a band.
I can hear up to 18 clearly, and I just turned 23. I think I can hear 19 as well, but it doesn’t sound really high pitched, but I can definitely hear something.
Sometimes it’s not hearing loss, it’s just that your ears won’t detect it right away (I say based on experience, not science.) If I go up in number I can only hear up to fifteen, but if I switch up and down between the higher ones, then after a few times I drop back down and can hear up to eighteen.
Sorry to dissapoint but for those who claim they can hear all the way up to 22kHz when they turn the volume up full, unfortunately what you are hearing is speaker hum. This is a distortion at high gain. If you can’t hear the pitch when the volume is 50% or less then you can’t hear the frequency.
Exactly the human ear will only pick up to 20Khz and you won’t hear 20 unless your a new born. The best way to test is actually turning the volume down if you can hear 8hz on low volume go to the next frequency and so on. then you’ll now were your hearing cuts off!!
I’m a 47 year old male who has played a lot in bands (mainly as a drummer).
Using Sennheiser HD280 headphones I can hear up to 18kHz but nothing above that.
I hear the 10 and 12 MHz only. I reckon that I have pretty good hearing for a 38 year old male. Plan to retry this experiment with the whole family!
One thing that you should clearly note somewhere on the page: the results depend not only on your hearing abilities, but also on the quality of your computer’s sound card and other audio equipment. I think not everybody realizes this.
Maybe you should make audio files with all these tones available for download (.WAV format, no compression) so people can burn them to a CD and play that CD directly on the CD player in their HiFi system – this way one could eliminate the computer from the chain and be sure that only his or her hearing abilities affect the result…
As for my results, I can hear 15 kHz very clearly (I’m 46). I can also hear a trace of 16 kHz sound with the computer connected to my HiFi set and volume turned up quite high. No sound with 17 kHz and higher.
But who knows what clips the sound at this limit – is it my ears or the soundcard?
I’m 20 years old and i can hear to 19 kHz
what does it means??
I can only hear 8 my kids can hear 20khz
29 IT guy, heard them all.
I’m 27-years old Pole, and hear to 16 kHz, but this last not much.
I’m 30,5 years old & I hear sound up to 16 kHz. It is good or not?
Well, it also depends what equipment you use. I tried with my friends headphones and I couldn’t hear 17kHz.
Using my high-end beyerdynamic headphones I was able to hear up to 18kHz.
(I’m 25)
33 years old. I could hear all tones except the last one. I suspect my computer’s speakers are to blame as I could hear some static there not present in the other tones. I had to turn the volume all the way up though.
I am 36 and I could here all of them pretty clearly, except 21kHz was lower in volume than 22kHz. I had my wife do several blind tests to make sure I was not cheating…and I could even tell which frequencies on most guesses.
I think the results on the sine wave were wrong. I measured all of them with my SPL meter and they were all the same volume….even though when answering it said wrong.
I guess I’m rather lucky. I’m 68 and could hear all the tones thank goodness. I am surprised though because I’ve always turned up my music rather loud and frequented places with loud bands.
I’m 23. I can hear up to 20kHz at a low volume, but to hear 21 and 22kHz, I had to turn my speaks up a bit, but I’m able to hear them. I’m pretty sure it’s due to my monitor speakers, the cable (which normalizes sound for the monitor’s sake), and the on-board SPU. I’m very keen to sound since I’m an audiophile. ๐
18 y.o., up to 18 kHz, pressure-like feeling at full volume and 19 kHz. Used mivoc RB 105.
I’m 16. i can’t hear the first one without high quality headphones. even then i can’t hear past 12Khz.
I am 23 (almost 24) and I can hear up to 20 KHz
I’m 62 years of age, in great shape, healthy and all that good stuff. I just wanted to inform you that you need to get a few bugs worked out on this webpage because only the 8 kHz tone is working. lol
Hey man. Great sense of humour. I would suggest fixing all the ones above 15kHz, for I’m a 33 year old. If they don’t work for you, they’re equal to having broken. BTW, I just thought one advantage of being “normal” in hearing is to allow us get less disturbed by certain sounds which cats/dogs pay much attention to(no offence to those who can hear); though the flip side is not to be the first ones to know when an earthquake comes. Although many say it’s a deteriation of hearing, I can’t help wondering whether it’s a kind of evolution or adaptation to our environments?
I am 31, I can hear all of them easily using my external speakers.
with my headphones i can hear up to 20. specs say they can produce 22 sounds but i can’t hear them.
with my laptop speaker i can up to 17 internal laptop speakers are designed to work for up to 17.
So it is also probable that volume (since on my external speakers can go quite loud and the lower frequencies from 16 and lower really annoy me) affects the results you guys have.
15 and I can hear all of them, painfully loud too.
I am 21 years old. using a set of Klipsch Image S4 headphones. I can hear through 17kHz. I am a musician and have performed on my share of loud stages, and been to loud rock concerts and such. Apparently, it’s a natural deterioration of the human auditory system… and so slow that you won’t notice unless you do a test like this. Interesting, though!
Im 13 and i can hear all of them with no headphones. for some weird reason i can hear a little thing that we have to keep the ants away, its very high pitched. We had to take it out because i couldn’t stand being around it. Haha has anyone had the same thing happen to them?
So Im 18 and with no head phones i could only hear up to 18.
but with my skull candy headphones i heard them all.
I guess it depends on what is actually producing the sound. such as laptop speakers & lowrider headphones
Im 11 and i can hear 18khz
I;m 17, I couldn’t hear past 18 which I thought was odd, so I turned up my speakers and was able to hear everything.
I’m 23 and I cant hear past 15 kHz… guess I haven’t taken as good care of my hearing as I thought
This is spectacularly unscientific. Apart from the fact that each person will have different audio kit (and there’s a vast difference from one headphone to another, let alone speakers to headphones etc, there’s also the difference in volumes.
Really, don’t read anything into this test – protect your ears anyway (it’s common sense) and get your ears tested properly if you feel the need. Incidentally I can hear up to 23khz on a decent setup, I can’t hear past 17 on this with some fairly good computer headphones.
18, and can hear up to 17 kHz.
I’m half deaf in one ear ;D
No current excuse for the other ear, though.
I’m a 24 yo Male and I can hear up to 18kHz. I’m an audio engineer, so I’m paid to make the right decisions when it comes to sound. At first I was a little bit worried that I couldn’t hear anything over 18k, but in my opinion, frequencies above 16kHz, are not that important; don’t get me wrong, I am mindful of the importance of the higher frequencies, but the truth of the matter is, our ears and brain don’t need to communicate/reproduce the higher frequencies, our ears are tuned to hearing really well around the 2kHz or 2000Hz range, because that’s where most (not all) peoples voices are pitched, so the higher frequencies are pretty much redundant. So if you’re worried that you can’t hear anything over 16kHz, you really aren’t missing out on much.
I totally agree with Adam. I to am an audio engineer and he is correct. Frequencies above 16kHz really mean nothing to our everyday lives. I’m 32 and can hear up to 17kHz but in saying that, I’ve yet to have a client call me and say “Hey man, can you throw a little 18k boost to the mix…you kinda missed it on the top end.” If I want to add “air” to a mix, yes I will boost the top end at 16kHz but with an Eq, its pulling up frequencies on a curve…so I’m boosting the lower frequencies as well. In a lot of cases ultra high frequencies will hurt our ears and be very harsh, if not used correctly.
i’m 19, and can only hear the 8…….maybe i need to get my hearing checked
some soundcards have low-pass filter, ASUS eee pc got it set for 8KHz, maybe you are ok…
I am a 41 year old male, and was surprised that I could the 22khz. It was very faint, but I was able to detect it. This comes as quite a surprise since I’ve been listening to heavy metal music since about 1982, mainly with some sort of ear-phone device. I also usually turn the volume up to max. Maybe I’m lucky or maybe deafness is lurkning just around the corner for me!
44 y.o. male: cannot hear from 14 Khz and up. 12 Khz sounds pretty dim to me.
(Sony QS MOSFET AMP + B&O Beovox 3000, thus not laptop speakers) BTW, great test!
Not all speakers are able to produce these sounds because with my speakers i can hear up to 14khz, then nothing until i get to the 20khz & 21khz tones which i hear very clearly!!!
During a science experiment as a teenager, it was found that i could hear the same frequencies as dogs/cats. I’m now 45.
I am 53, computer techie female and heard SOMETHING all the way up to 22khz. I had to turn up the volume but not unreasonably high (windows was @ about 20% speakers) and it was very faint @ 22 but i distinctly heard a tone. it was much cleared 2 18, 19 but i still heard all the way up to 22. Never been to a rock concert, always careful with volumes on ipods etc.
I used a pair shure sound isolation ear buds (a bit expensive but worth it) and a dell netbook with a high quality sound card.
It’s probably just signal noise, since your headphones are attempting to produce the sound frequency being fed to them, but can’t. The result is a noise that could be in any frequency.
25 year old dnb fan ๐ spent sooo much time in underground clubs and living with musician for 6 years ๐ hear all of them ๐ haha.
I’m 13 and can hear up to 19…you old people that can hear all of the things are amazing
I’m 23 and with a decent pair of earbuds, and the volume all the way up on my computer, I can hear all the way up to 20kHz. I also “hear” something on 21 and 22kHZ, but it’s more just like a low static hiss than an actual frequency. Might just be because *something* is playing though.
I am 21 and I can hear all of them. I used really cheap headphones when I did it, so the headphones don’t matter. 22kHz is definitely lower than the rest of them.
Bullsh*tter. Humans can only hear up to 20KHz.
You do realize, Sir Metal, that they may be hearing some kind of noise for the 22 kHz that really isn’t that frequency at all, but instead some noise the speakers are making in an attempt at reproducing that frequency? People are just saying that they hear something, and you can’t tell them they’re not because clearly, they are. Possible explanation for this though is that their speakers/headphones or soundcard are just not perfect and end up making a sound that is NOT in fact 22 kHz. You are correct that human ears are not capable of hearing beyond the 20 kHz threshold, so then obviously when they play that 22 kHz sound byte, their computers are representing it at a much lower frequency than intended.
im not sure how most of you are doing this test up to 20khz in the first place. unless you have studio monitors your average or even home entertainment center usually dont have speakers with the ability to play a 20khz let alone a 22khz which we cant hear anyway. i have a paire of m-audio studiophile av40 monitors and they cap at 20khz. all im saying is a cant imagine a pair of stock comp speakers going past 18khz
Am 46.. can hear the 21 & 22, in fact most, but not 14 & 18!?!? WTF?
You’re probably hearing the 10.5 and 11kHz harmonics, and not the primary frequency.
How can he/she be hearing a harmonic if the fundamental frequency of 21Khz-22Khz cannot even be heard? There is not a half-octave harmonic generated from a test tone.
If you cant hear 14k then obviously, your not hearing frequencies above that, soory, there are lots of people on here that say the same. Use you brains people, your hearing lower frequency ‘artifacts ok? I can only hear up to 14k, not bad for 50yrs old BUT, I can hear thing and lower noises on 18 and 21, 22 too. But, I can hear that they are lower than 14. I’m a musician, maybe that helps…
43 and can only hear up to 12!
My son 8 years old can hear up to 17
i am 36 and can only hear up to 12 before i found this site i was scared i was going deaf.
Good to, um, hear. 43 as well and heard the 12. not the 14. Don’t have a child to tell if it’s me or the speakers, my dog isn’t telling me.
Despite what manufacturer’s will post not all speaker/amps etc will reproduce these extreme frequencies well. I’m planning on retaking this when I’m sitting at my editing desk and listening to my focal monitors.
Why would manufacturers lie about their products specs? Having a better frequency range is something that they would want to market, since enthusiasts mainly look at that spec ๐
I turn 28 in two months – I can clearly hear up to 18KHz, which surprises me as I listen to my music quite loud.
On a side note: I can also click my ears, I don’t know why or even how I do it – but I can…
I’m 16 and can hear to 20, BARELY
I’m 14 and I can hear all of them (Except 22) with my volume @ the lowest setting for mac. I’m using skullcandy 50/50’s when I did this – I figured it might have been because of the headphone. I tried them with my cheapie airline pair and I still could hear up to 21. I guess I have good hearing, ๐
Humans’ ears can only hear up to 20KHz รขโฌโ and that’s when you’re a baby! I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but you’re either bullsh*tting or you just THINK you can hear it.
your a [removed]. i can hear all those clearly up to 22KHz. What? you gonna try tell ME i’m lying?
No. your wrong. Your only saying that because you wish you could hear over 20. Well sorry to burst your bubble, but i can hear up to maximum frequency. Stop talking about things you don’t understand. Because your really getting on people’s nerves.
Brian, I have been studying Science for 6 years at Caltech. It’s simply a fact that the human ear cannot hear most noise over 20 kHz. As much as I would love to believe you’re super human, I think you’re just being ridiculous.
I’m 23 and I can hear ALL of them. It can’t be placebo because my ears literally hurt at the end. Not as much as the 8khz hurts my ears, but they still hurt. Might have something to do with playing the piano since I was very little. I don’t think my ears are superhuman, I just have more of an attention span when it comes to sound as I listen to it carefully for 10 hours a week as I play.
Jake, it’s not science if it’s not reproducible.
If human ears have a hard limit at 20kHz then why, when I clicked on the 22kHz sample, did my wife across the room yell, “What the hell was that?”
The answer, of course, is that human ears *don’t* have a hard limit at 20kHz. There *are* people far into the upper tail of the bell curve who can hear high frequencies.
Everyone claiming to here the sounds over 20kHz, what you are actually hearing is probably something under 20Hz. Most low to mid quality sound hardware (so your media player/computer’s sound card + speakers/headphones, etc) has a constrained frequency range (usually something like 20Hz to 20kHz, often less the cheaper the product is), hence they are literally incapable of producing that sound frequency. Some players/speakers may still emit a sound for frequencies above their range, but it is not the actual frequency.
Not only is it extremely unlikely you can actually hear frequencies above 20kHz (you’d often be irritated by sounds no one else can hear, since such sound is indirectly produced by things like AC/DC power converters, transformers, faulty capacitors, etc), it’s physically impossible with most headphones/speakers, since nearly all but enthusiast-marketed speakers/headphones can only output 20hz to 20kHz.
Also, skullcandy 50/50s are rated to 20kHz. In perfect conditions. In a lab. When they’re brand new. Break-in reduces high-frequency response of any earphone with moving parts (ie: 50/50s).
Your headphones are not physically capable of producing the sound you claim to hear from them.
Point 1:
Sorry, unless u have a mutation that allows you to hear BETTER, which odds are so large you literally are incapable of comprehending its scale, you cannot hear 21k frequency.
Point 2:
Skdy 50/50’s cannot produce anything above 20kHz. Go to their website if you dont believe me. And I’m sure u can understand that a company would advertise their produce at its peak, no some average. This means that at THE VERY BEST conditions, its max is 20kHz. Therefore, it cannot physically produce the 21kHz you’re claim to hear.
Point 3:
You’re using a mac.
@Nathan, Hey buddy don’t listen to these guys. I’m about to turn 24 and I can clearly hear up to 21, but not 22. I am using speakers from new Samsung laptop in a relatively quiet (but not silent) environment. I do not claim to know the science of this but if humans can not hear at that frequency then the samples must not be correct, but don’t try to tell us that we don’t hear something. Why would anyone make that up?
Btw, I have been in bands since I was 14, using loud cheap amps, going to extremely loud death metal concerts, and frequenting loud bars/clubs lately.
One, the human ear has not been able to reliably hear anything above 20Khz.
Two, many speakers when turned even to a mid volume (relative to the speakers max) will still produce sound but the sound will not be of the correct frequency.
I cut out after 18KHz and I am 17, but like others here have stated I have been exposed to Loud sounds. It beats the loudest of rock concerts though.
I was making charges for some pyrotechnics for the 4th of July, when one of the tools I was using sparked off onto some Flash powder. it was measured out to 70 grains. Honestly I consider myself luck to have hands though they are still scared from the burns. I was deaf in both ears for a few days.
Ears are very robust but should not be abused carelessly.
Some people may be able to hear 20Khz or more, but that number is VERY small and there is something different with that person.
im 16, and i heard 21kHz, but couldnt hear 22 at all. for all the people saying you cant, i dont care what degree you have, i dont care who you claim to be or claim to know, i know i heard 21kHz. no matter impossible that is, i heard it. im sure of it