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, 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.
Well, I have been an avid car audio enthusiast for around 20 years. I have owned systems that exceeded 140 dB, and usually listen to my music at fairly loud volumes. I am 37 years old, and was able to hear up to 17 kHz. The only thing this really tells me, is that I can still hear some very high frequencies. Funny enough, it’s not mentioned in here about mid level hearing loss ….which is where a lot of problems start arising for most people. Being able to distinguish people’s words when they speak would have absolutely nothing to do with very high frequencies. I’m not an expert of any kind, but it seems to me that this test really accomplishes nothing at all.
I can only hear up to 18… never was really a fan of loud music and I’m only 22… I hope this doesn’t mean I’ll need hearing aids when i’m in my 40’s lol
I am 31 years old and i can hear 12KHZ.
Okay i hear up to 20 and 21 and 23 disturb my ear in a very weird way…. O.O i never wanna hear that again. Ever. lol its such a tiny sound but it makes my ear or something vibrate… i just can hear it so clearly :S
I am 33 years of age and can hear up to 21 khz.
i can hear them all perfectly up to 18 with fairly decent sennheiser earphones (im 19 years old). The ones after that, I can hear what sounds like harmonics or compression noise. This doesnt count, though. You are listening for a clear high pitched whistle.
I am 19 years old and I cut out at 17Khz. I’m also a musician, so that pretty much explains it.
I’m 34 and can hear up to 15 kHz using earbuds. My (very cheap) PC speakers seem to quit at 12 kHz though.
Ok folks, before you get upset that you cannot hear the higher frequencies check the technical specifications of your speakers/headphones then realize that they are actually lower than what is advertised. The younger poeple here probably have better hardware as they are more interested in multimedia applications. In any case, frequencies are supposed to be unique, so hearing “lower harmonics” should be out of the question.
I’m over 60 and I cannot even hear 12kHz. Which is partly my own fault, I work with loud machinery and I only occasionally wear protective ear covers.
im 18 with normal desk speakers i can heard 19 khz
i did the test with mom and she only heard up to 14khz, she is 52 years old omg
I’m 18 and i can hear up to 20Khz clearly at full volume (albeit the 20Khz is very faint), is it normal that sometimes i have this ringing in my ears very close to the 20Khz?
Iam 20 years old. I got into this place by suriosity as sometimes i hear high frequency sounds around the plcae and like no one int he class can hear it so it was just a curiosity. Anyways I can hear up to 18kHz without earbuds but with earbuds i can hear upto 21kHz whihc then gave me a headache
I’m 41 and can hear 17 Khz with the sound turned up.
13
Can hear up to 20, not 21? but i can hear 22…
does that make sense????
I’m 18 and listen to music constantly, i even set my iPod to play while i’m sleeping and then time it to shut off by itself. I am super shocked that i can hear 21 kHz. It’s crazy, but it’s kinda cool.
I HEAR ALL THE THINGS!!!
I heard all the way to 22 and i’m using a schools speaker lol 😀
at 41 used a set of Panasonic RP-HTX7 headphones Just heard up to 16 kHz a little troubling since I’m a musician…
Dude there are A LOT of people commenting that they can hear 22 khz… NOT scientifically possible.
Especially these late 20s ppl and beyond saying that.
Im 23, I can hear some low frequency fundamentals of 22 and or maybe just some electronic noise, but no one is hearing 22 khz.
21, no headphones, 1/3 volume, and can hear 22.
I can hear up to 17 on a tablet and I can hear everything on my home stereo with it turned up a little high.
At 40, I can hear @16khz with Sennhieser PX80.
A lot depends on what is the dynamic response of the headphones used to check out the tests
Would have also loved to see test below 30hz for the low frequency range.
Im 24 years old and i can hear 17 khz, and my friend is 14 years old he can hear 19 khz
i am 13 and i can hear up to 20 khz
I’m 29 a musician and I can hear all the way up to 22.
I can hear them clearly up to 18KHz, not sense 19, and barely sense 20.
13 1/2 years.
I am 25 and my headphones are making noise but i can still hear 21. 22 is more muted but can still hear it
same for me but im 13
I’m 16 and I can hear up 20. I thought I’d share since everyone else was. But honestly, I think with the right headphones, I could hear up to 22.
Okay. Bye.
Im 31 years old, I hear all of them:)
23 years old.
The levels of the soundcard’s equalizer were set as default and I could hear up to 16 Khz, I hear 17Khz too, I think. When I adjusted the equalizer, every frequence was audible.
🙁
I am 19 and I can clearly hear up to 20kHz. I can just barely hear 21 and 22. Up to 16 kHz hurts my ears and 17 kHz and above does not.
im 22 and i can hear all the freq (up to 22) with audio technica esw9
the reason you probably cant hear anything is probably due to your sh*tty speakers.
im 16, and I can hear all of them, though the 22khz is really quiet. That doesnt surprise me though, cuz i can hear the high pitch sounds electronics make, i can even hear my own laptop.
17 and can hear them all
I’m 35 and I can hear up to 15. The two top ones, 21 and 22 khz, hurt my right ear – it turned warm as well for some reason.
I’m 18 and I can only hear the 8 KHZ, the very first one. Is that ok?
Im 18 1/2 and can hear up to 18 . JusT BARELY BARELY can i hear 19 im in trouble arent i?
17 and heard all of themm
I can BARLEY hear 17 and im 13….
i am 29 and with my studio monitors ( samson resolv 65a i can hears up to 22 khz but with another speakers i hear only up yo 17…with my beats by dre solo hd headphones i can hear up to 19 khz so the problem can be bad quality speakers
I am 27 years old and can hear up to 20 barely. I am getting old lol
I’m a 18 years old boy and I can heare them all!:P
28, 17/18Hz depending on the computer; not sure if its my audio codec cutting it off; but, I am going to guess I just can’t hear above that anymore, except for some fluke frequencies.
And yes; dog and cat alarms as well as old computer monitors and tv’s drive me NUTS! Not as much of a problem as it used to be though. I remember in Junior High arguing with a teacher about a computer monitor being on somewhere in the room. She called me a liar, and indeed I was right. I can still hear those pesky things! Thank goodness the days of CRT’s is over!
Im 12 and can clearly hear up to 18 and very faintly hear 21.
I’m 23, up to 19khz easily, 20 i still perceive that there is a sound going on but cant really hear it… weirdly i hear 15khz a bit less than 14khz or 16khz…
Using Grado SR-80 Headphones…
(btw if you use speakers pc speaker or some other cheap speaker (yes i know there are good pc speaker over 500$…), some compress sound after a specific frequency so that the 22khz will in fact be a 16khz for example… like the cheap iphone speaker that make you hear up to 25khz… lol)
I am 26 and can hear all the way up to 22khz and perhaps more if there were more tests using the TVs DAC via HDMI clearly (required some more volume than the lower frequencies).
If I used the onboard sound card DAC it cuts off at 16khz. So much for it being 24bit 196khz LOL. So I don’t think you can get accurate tests for this using standard audio equipment.
18 years old. Heard up to 18 kHz. Which I find surprising, cause I don’t listen to my iPod through my ear buds very much.
I’m 27 and I can hear all of them if I have my computer volume all the way up… I had to start off with the volume around 15 percent because I thought my ears were going to bleed. At 17 I had to turn the volume all the way up and then I heard the rest of them.
If anything is loud enough you’ll hear it right? Even with the high freqencies?
33 years old, can hear all of them. 22 is definitely more muted and more of a low hiss, but I can still detect it.