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.
I am a 29 nearly 30 year old female and i can hear them all with both speakers on laptop and earphone’s ….i have a problem though,my hearing is awful and cant hear people speak to me when any other noise is going on around me like in a room full of other people or if outside in the wind or even on the phone with noise around me i cant hear.What drives me really mad is those Cat alarms you get for your garden to keep cats away….i can hear them so well that it actually hurts my ears. Anyone else have this same problem??
Im 16 and i can hear upto 17
I’m 15, and I can clearly hear all of them. 19-22 khz was much harder to hear than 8-18 khz, but I could hear them! Which surprised me ALOT, since I listen to VERY loud music all day long, I have almost constant ringing in my ears, but it seems my hearing hasn’t been damaged.. yet! (Except for the ringing obviously)
I’m 19, and I can hear up to 21 kHz.
I’m 70 years old and have been a musician since I was 8 yrs.
I still play the synth keyboard in public alone and in groups fairly loud. My hearing cuts out after 14 KHz, so I can still set up the mikes and check the graphic equalisers manually. I have also used power tools most my working life. I use earmufs now, but when I was younger I used tools unprotected. Don’t drink or smoke! I reckon that makes a difference.
Bram
I am 24. I turned my Volume to a Loudness so that i hear 8khz not too loud and comfortable. With this Setting i can cleary hear up to 19khz.
20khz is very quiet. And at 21khz i only feel there is something, 22khz i don’t even perceive.
I heavilly use Headphones at home. Mostly I have low till moderate Volume but at long Time (hours!).
On the way i hear Music (mobile Audioplayer) very seldom.
For Concerts or Discos (both rarely) i usually use Hearprotection (Earplugs for exmaple).
31 years old, and I can hear all of them, but it’s almost like the two highest ones I just have a slight sense that there’s a sound, but I wouldn’t call it reuly “hearing” them, you know? It’s like I can “feel” the two high ones, but I “hear” all the rest. Weird.
Took it. Can hear pretty much up to the last (the last sounds like a low pitched hum to me).
Good up to 21 kHz, but nothing at all at 22 ๐
I’m 14 (near 15) and I can hear all of them :P, but 20-22 kHz was difficult.
I am 28 and i can hear 22Khz sound
I don’t understand how come I only have trouble hearing the 20000 Hz sound ๐
i am 15 and i could hear 16kHz
is that good?!
Hi everybody
I’m 20 years ago men and I heard all of these samples very good. In high freeqences samples I turned a little bit on. If you want to hear all samples you need a good quality headphones. I have one with frequency response 8-23000 Hz so it’s very wide for the headphones.
I can hear up to 19kHz. When im listening 20kHz my hearing cuts out and I hear only some kind of hiss. Im 17.
Could hear up to 17 really well…18 was faint…19-22 very faint.
I can hear them all and if you have higher khz than 22 let me know. I have amazing hearing for being 18 and having my eardrum been split in half twice already. lol.
That was kinda amusing- i could hear easily up to 17 with my cheap antique headphones at 30% volume so i jumped to 22 and “didn’t hear anything” then thought my hearing was bad. then i realized it was just a really quiet sound that just bothered my ears so i did hear it but was expecting something really loud. looks like im all good ๐
21/Male, I can hear up to 21kHz.
im 13 years young, and i can hear up to the 17th one.
im so worried im deaf :'(
Im about to turn 16 and my hearing cut out at 21
im 18 and i can hear up to 17 then again im always blasting music anywhere i go
I can hear all of them except 20?! I can hear 21 and 22 perfectly, but no 20?!
Half these people are [removed]. Only a small percentage of the population can hear up to 22KHz you’re not fooling anyone.
WOW… That just made me very nauseous and dizzy… FYI I will never do that again… I heard all of them which doesn’t surprise me because I can hear frequencies come out of all electrical outlets and this sounds weird but if my cell phone is close to me I can hear a noise similar to the 17khs a split second before it rings, and a TV when it first comes on, there are a number of other things too. I am 24 and I could hear all those things as far back as I can remember but as I get older it starts making me more and more nauseous… I know some of you wont believe me but I am completely serious…
Yes!! I am the same way… I hear the frequencies put out by most electronics in the house but I never really think about it until the power goes out (like it did today) and then I hear a quiet I almost never hear..and its kind of wonderful…though I love my electronics LOL
have you ever been around the cat deterrents? I can’t stand them they go right through my teeth.
I am 33, and i can vividly remember I was the same as you described – when I was about your age. I can’t remember when this amazing phenomenon disappeared from me because I never consciously paid any attention, but it’s gone. I remember I had a hearing range upto about 18~19kHz when I was 22 (tested by a friend working at an audiology lab. But the test I just did gave me much dizziness. I cannot hear higher than 15kHz, but my brain feels microwaved after listening to frequencies I can’t “hear”…
I fear that if some of us are around certain electronics which produce certain high frequencies, we are de-sensitized for good. I can hear the fridge making a noise from the kitchen while in my bedroom sleeping, I can only ignore it.
iCan only hear up to 17kHz , its the last one iCan hear && iAm only 14 . But iAm also 40% Deaf .
I’m 11 and I can hear up through 20.
i can hear 19 kHz and im 14
27 and i can hear 17 khz on my pc speakers+subwoofer setup,but i cant hear 17khz in my headphones so its really important that we all listen on the same system and then compare
i don’t understand how some of you can actually hear the high-pitched 22 kHz sound, not the static noise from it o.O they all sound the same to me after 20 .. i’m 16 by the way
I’m a 20-year-old who drives to loud music at full blast on a daily routine. At first I could only hear up to 13kHz on my Z-5500 speakers, but when I tried my CX-400 in-ear headphones I could hear up to 22kHz.
I wonder whether turning up the volume works the same way as wearing hearing aids; in which case if I needed amplification to hear what otherwise normal teens would seizure over then I must really be deaf.
I’m 14 (so I really shouldn’t have any problems). I can hear 8-17 without effort, and have to turn my computer volume up a lot to hear 18. 20-21 were full volume and microwaved my brain but i could hear them. 22 I could barely hear but the noise was still clear. For all of you old people, you are not missing out on much. Most of the sounds are so high….. you can’t even think about what the sound like. Like your brain’s voice box doesn’t go that high. It’s unnatural ._.
It detects the range of one’s hearing, not sensitivity. So if you had to crank up the volume for higher than 17kHz, then most likely it’s a distortion. Don’t think these sounds are very pleasant, and most people cerainly wouldn’t like to listen to them all day. Not sure that’s missing on a lot.
I’m 46, and can hear up to 15 kHz, but not above that. My sons (12 and 14) can hear up to 20 kHz. This is on the built in speakers on an iMac. I didn’t think I had lost any hearing but clearly I’m wrong! Thanks for the fun test.
Pat
I’m 30 and had no difficulty in hearing any of the samples. I wish you had higher frequencies available… ๐ Though I’m not sure my loudspeakers would produce them well.
I’m also having trouble with all kinds of electric appliances since I hear their high-frequency squeaking all the time. ๐
I’m 23 and I can hear up to 16 kHz.
Uh, actually I’m 24. Typo.
For Your Interpretation If You Can Hear Any Of These Test You Dont Have Hearing Loss becuase if you can hear anything above 6000 hz Its Good This
Tests Start at 8000 Hz so If Your Hear any of these your safe
I Heard All Ranges From 8KHZ to 22KHZ
Oh, just for the record, the blip heared at beginning of every sample doesn’t count, you cheaters.
People who listen beyond 16Khz are freak! why don’t you look for a guy named Xavier that manages an academy of people with superpowers?
I’m 33, and I can hear 8-14, but not 15. My 7 yr old can hear through 18, and my 3 yr old can hear through 19.
However, when I turned the volume all the way up, we all hear all of them. 16 went lower, 17 annoyingly high and then the rest lower.
I’m 22 and could hear all of them on the highest volume. But as many others mentioned in their comments, I’m not sure if with 21 and 22 I was just hearing static noise or the real noise.
Our cat seemed to hear all of them also haha. He wasn’t too thrilled about the noise :).
20KHz, but barely, I’m 19
Thank you for puting up this site. I find this extremely valuable for judging the relative pitch of tinnitus. It is interesting that one can sense the presence of some of the tones that can not be heard. It should be noted that thresholds above 8kHz may not follow the same continuium as the Fletcher Munson and MAP curves. Standing waves play a significant role and have limited the use of high-frequency hearing evaluation, as well as limited diagnostic information. As Adam stated, there are many reasons why the evaluation of high-frequency hearing is not commonplace (his being the most cogent) even though modern computer driven audiometers can be had with a high – frequency option. Further, the frequencies involved are extremely directional and just the slightest movement of the head can significantly alter the perceived intensity. I will make good use of this site regarding relative testing for patients especially when the pitch of tinnitus can’t be measured on an audiometer. Thank you again as an Audiologist, audiophile and musician. Great Job!
I’m 63 and mine cuts out at just over 8kHz…shame…no wonder I miss most of the whale arias…
I was able to hear them all, then again, I’m only 13.
I can hear all of them easily. I have super-sensitive hearing to high-pitched sounds though. 19khz and 20khz is just simply torture to me :/. 21 is bad too. 22 is too low to be bad, even on higher volumes. It doesn’t really sound high, just sounds.
I’m 60 and only heard 8.
i can hear up to 17 kHz aand im only 14
Samee here !
Doesn’t seem to work on my Mac. I tried both Firefox and Safari browsers. The only tone that seems to generate a signal is 8K, but what I hear is much higher pitch than 8K. All of the others make no sound at all. Other hearing tests do work on my Mac.
I am using a Mac and Safari. It works this ancient ‘lamp stand’ mac, power mac 6.3 with the ‘half a grapefruit’ shaped detachable speakers. I could hear up to 14kHz at a push with the sound cranked up. I am 57.
I am 46 and could hear up to 12
You know you are only supposed to be able to hear up to 20 – coming from a junior with straight A’s.