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.
I’m 16 and I can hear them all 🙂
I am 25 and my sister is 21, and the both of us can only hear the tone clearly up to 19khz. D:
the 16 is very faint but I can hear it. I just turned 20.
i’m 15 and i can only hear up to 18 Hz… oops
I can’t hear past 15. And I am 18.
i’m 23 and i could easily hear 19, a bit hard with 20 and very very hard 21, couldn’t hear 22.
I’m 19 an I could barely hear 19.
Im 15 and I cant hear past 17….probably doesn’t help that I go to shows 24/7
I’m 17 and can’t hear past 14..
i am 17 and could only just about hear the 18hz.
I’m 19 and the last one I heard was 14. (I am, however, half-deaf)
I’m eleven and I heard up to 18kHz 🙂
15 & i got up to 22
LIKE.A.BOSS 8)
20 years old, I could hear all of them clearly. I think it was because I’m using Denon AH-D2000 headphones though, and they can reproduce up to 55 khz. I’m pretty sure most computer speakers and consumer headphones only go up to 19 khz…so that might be the reason why people can’t hear above that well even if they have great hearing.
17 years old I can hear all of them on low volume
I’m 19 and I can hear all of the frequencies given. However, after 19kHz it gets a little distorted and I can’t hear them when the volume is turned down. I have a x-fi fatal1ty sound card on my system that’s supposedly rated to work at a sample rate of 96kHz. Unless I missed something, my sound card can cover some pretty intense ranges, but it’s hard to say if I can hear all of them. lol
15 and heard properly up to 19. I could kinda hear 20. Is that good or what?
I’m 19 and I can hear all the way up to 22khz. It’s not a flat tone like the other ones though. It has a faint buzzing noise with my computer.
Surprises me though, I listen to a lot of loud music.
i’m 57 and just barely hear 16 at max volume. Normal lifestyle but lots of 1970’s loud concerts
19 and I can hear up to 19. I’ll now blame being a musician my whole life.
I’m 22 and can hear up to 18kHz clearly. At 19kHz I hear a slight tonal difference; however, it is muffled a little. 20kHz is just straight up annoying. Kind of makes my neck twitch… and 21-22kHz is a no go for me with the exception of my right ear (maybe an imbalance in hearing loss over the years?)… I hear clicks.
FYI I am wearing a pair of 8 Proprietary Balance Armature Custom IEMs while performing this. This may have given me a bit of an edge… It may be a computer or Headphone issue too…
I wear IEMs on a daily basis.
The highest I can hear is 17. 🙁
Oh, and I am 17.
i have terrible hearing, im under 15 and i cant hear above 16!!
I kno I’m deaf, have been for a long time. But I can hear the first one. I am 32.7% deaf, and happy with this test. Thx!
18 years old, I can hear 21 if I turn up my headphones all the way, 18 if i listen at a normal volume.
I’m 23 and barely heard 18 kHz. My cat hated all of them though =P
I am 24 and could hear 17k but not 18k. I play punk music and go to alot of basement shows with no earplugs. I must change all that
I’m 28 years old, and i can hear all of them. 22khz is thin. My speakers 35hz – 35khz
I’m 21 and the last one I head was 18 kHz
I’m 14 years old and i could barely hear 14kHz..
I’m a bit late, I know, but despite being 40 in a couple of weeks and having spent about 15 years of my life in clubs, at gigs or in band practice can still hear 16kHz, and a couple above that give me a buzzing in my skull…
Im 44 and could hear to 20. But I take ginko, Co Q 10 and seanol which are famous for keeping ones hearing perfect. What was that you said???
Well I’m 10 and I can hear all the way to the 21 KhZ.
I’m 16, and I had to crank my speakers up to 84 (on the computer – the speaker controls itself is at about 20%, if you get what i mean), but i could hear all the way up to 22, but it was the ‘softest’ at 19. I got really worried that i might be losing my hearing because during physics class yesterday, we were doing these hearing range tests, and i couldn’t hear beyond like 15 – my teacher said it was probably because we had a really bad loudspeaker and i was standing at the back – but i thought i had hearing loss! i mean, i DO listen to my ipod like most teenagers, but it’s usually for a couple of hours at night, just to help me sleep.
I’m 29 and I can hear up to 18, then it skips 19 and 20, then I can hear 21 and 22. I wonder why it skips like that. Is it possible that the white noise given off by my speakers is too similar to these for me to distinguish a sound? I definitely hear a sound change when my speakers are off versus when they are on but are not playing any sound.
All my life I’ve been able to hear a similar sound to 18 and 21 when a TV is left powered “on” but with nothing actually playing on the screen or through the speakers. It drives me crazy and so I’ll run over to the TV and shut it off, but my mom will always say that she can’t hear any sound at all. I don’t think she completely believes that there’s a sound to be heard.
OK lucky for me I am able to hear up to an dincluding 21, and I am 31 years old.
Lucky because I spend a lot of time in techno clubs including the infamous Berghain in Berlin, and walking around with Sennheiser in-ears turned up loud
I am a classical guitarist, so thank god I can still perceive those overtones !!
do be aware that your computer speakers may be limited to what it can play, and the volume also makes a difference. on this test i heard the 15, but kind of felt the higher ones. though i don’t feel bad i can’t hear the high stuff – why would i want to?
my speakers make this a pointless test i can hear all if i turn my speakers up except 16.
I am 44 year old electrician. I can’t hear past 10… YIKES!
This is kind of stupid. I couldn’t hear past 18kHz. But after I turned my sound all the way up on both computer and speakers I could clearly hear up to 22. You should explain this better or you’ll just get people confused.
I can hear up to 18 beyond that i can “feel” up to 20 i am 14 years old
i’m upper 30’s and couldn’t only barely hear 15k. nothing above at all.
I’m 11 and I can only hear up to 16 kHz. D:
I’m 19 and I could hear up to 19 barely but I don’t think my laptop speakers can play the other ones after 19.
20 years old and could hear them all. Maybe I’m not listening to music loud enough?
18 years old. can hear everything up to 18khz. could be because i use earphones i got from an airplane but who knows. might be going deaf
i just turned 13, and i cant hear any thing past 14kHz.
I am 14 and I cant even heaar 14 khz, have I got bad hearing?
I’m 17 (just) and I can barely, literally barely hear the 17KHz tone, I wouldn’t know if it was playing. For proper hearing I can just about hear the 16KHz tone. I thought I tried to take the best care of my hearing – what’s happened!!!?
eek. I am a professional musician and can’t hear 14!