# Can you hear this sound? A poll/test. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 24, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-hear-this-sound-a-poll-test/358083 "2006-05-24T20:47:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-hear-this-sound-a-poll-test/358083/101 "2006-05-27T22:31:22Z")
[QUOTE=Anastasaeon] Good god, yes! It sounds like the electrical wires outside. High pitched and whiny. Ouch. If we were supposed to be hearing something else, I can barely concentrate with that sound. Electric, icy blue. Grating. 28 in exactly two weeks. [/QUOTE] Pretty much exactly this response, except that it reminds me of the sound of a TV or monitor with no input, and I’m about 6 months shy of 28. I _hate_ that noise. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-hear-this-sound-a-poll-test/358083/102 "2006-05-27T23:48:11Z")
[QUOTE=BrightSmite] All I hear is a sexually promiscuous daughter who was abandoned by her father leaving a newly opened consignment shop with her previously estranged yet openly conscientious mother giggling at a recently rewarded yet slightly overweight construction worker’s exposed ass-crack is as he taps a pair of angle iron pieces into place [/QUOTE] Jeez, that’s \*\*\*exactly \*\*\*what I heard. Except that it sounded more like a security guard than a construction worker. And I’m 60. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-hear-this-sound-a-poll-test/358083/103 "2006-05-28T00:11:45Z")
I was born deaf, and currently use a cochlear implant. Thought I would listen to the soundfile in the OP and see what happens. Testing in the soundbooth with the cochlear implant on indicates that I can hear sounds up to 8000 Hz at a threshold level of about 30 to 35 dB. (This kind of testing normally does not go above 8 kHz, so I don’t know how well this device responds to frequencies higher than that.) The experience of listening to this was…_interesting_. With a pair of inexpensive Panasonic stereo headphones, and the volume turned to the maximum, I don’t hear anything except some generic background sounds, like clacking, faint voices, and traffic. But when I switched the speech processor of the cochlear implant to the “telecoil” setting, a pulsing sound became very audible. Sounds like water being shushed through a plastic tube. Even with the volume set to only half-way, it’s pretty noticeable. But I only hear it with the telecoil, which is designed to pick up electromagnetic emissions coming from the telephone headset (and it works a treat with headphones, too). But the pulsing sound is the only thing I hear with the telecoil. Bizzarely, the other sounds that I hear when using the speech processor in the standard microphone configuration is absent when I listen to this file with the telecoil setting. Except for a weird double clacking sound that occurs at the 12 second mark. After about five straight minutes of listening to this pulsing sound, I began experiencing an unpleasant physical sensation. The cochlear implant can sometimes cause facial nerve stimulation if it is not mapped properly, and when I began using it, it indeed have to be reprogrammed in order to resolve painful stimulation of the surrounding nerves and tissue whenever I was in the presence of a moderately intense high frequency sound. It’s like touching your tongue onto the contacts on a 9-volt battery, except it’s under your skin and traveling along the nerves. The sensation I experienced after listening to this soundfile was not exactly like that, but it was no less unpleasant. ---
**Author:** ![lobstermobster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobstermobster/32/10033_2.png) [@lobstermobster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobstermobster)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-hear-this-sound-a-poll-test/358083/104 "2006-05-28T00:54:59Z")
Yes - 22 my dog definately heard it- 2 years ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-hear-this-sound-a-poll-test/358083/105 "2006-05-28T04:00:26Z")
Played it at a low volume on decent computer speakers, and holy fuck that’s an annoying sound, and it indeed caused me pain, dammit. That was a mean thing to link to. I’m 23. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-hear-this-sound-a-poll-test/358083/106 "2006-05-28T04:26:10Z")
I’m 19, and I couldn’t hear it unless I turned the volume as far up as I could. The other one I didn’t have to turn up quite as loud. I tried going in and turning on the tv without turning on the cable, and didn’t I heard anything, but I kept trying and I think I may have heard it. It was more like I felt it though; I could barely hear it. I kept thinking maybe it was in my head, but I turned it off and didn’t feel it anymore. It could be the power of suggestion. Before people starting coming in with more detailed analyses, I thought maybe the original sound file was a test of that. ---
**Author:** ![moes\_lotion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-hear-this-sound-a-poll-test/358083/107 "2006-05-28T05:03:20Z")
53 years old here. I didn’t hear it at all the first time I listened with my low end Sennheiser HD 433 headphones, no matter how loud I set the volume. I opened the file in a sound editing program and ran a normalization on it, setting the peak levels to -6db (the high frequency signal waveform was visually obvious). Then it was immediately noticable at about 1/2 volume. Next I tried my good headphones, a pair of Grado SR80’s and I could hear the sound in the original mp3 file at about 1/4 volume. So as others have said, a lot depends on your equipment, and not just what’s inside your ears. I can still hear the whistle that some flourescent lights make, and would find this sound extremely annoying if I was subjected to it for any length of time. ---
**Author:** ![Webner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/0ea827/32.png) [@Webner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Webner)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-hear-this-sound-a-poll-test/358083/108 "2006-05-28T06:21:23Z")
Yes, I heard a high-pitched pulsing. I am 20. ---
**Author:** ![Crescend](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Crescend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crescend)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-hear-this-sound-a-poll-test/358083/109 "2006-05-28T10:42:26Z")
Heard it loud and clear. Frequency analyzer shows a very annoying 16kHz tone oscillating to -20db. I can ignore it if necessary, but if given the choice of hanging out in front of a store that’s broadcasting this and one that’s not, I’d pick the non-broadcasting one. I’m 23, playback on an E-MU 1820M / Sennheiser HD650s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-hear-this-sound-a-poll-test/358083.md?page=5)