# Hearing Test: How High Do Your Ears Go? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 22, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067 "2013-05-22T21:11:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/1 "2013-05-22T21:11:58Z")
At how high of a frequency can you start hearing the noise? I scored 15,048 on speakers (not headphones, headphones are recommended). LINK: [Cool Hearing test - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5l4Rt4Ol7M) WARNING: Do not expose yourself to these sounds for a prolonged period of time. Headphones are recommended for this test. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/2 "2013-05-22T21:32:47Z")
15250 Hz (with earbuds), which was higher than I thought it might be, given that (a) I’m 48, and (b) I’ve suffered not-insignificant hearing loss, due in part to rock concerts. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/3 "2013-05-22T21:40:44Z")
I have hearing loss in the high end of the scale. 10,700hz ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/4 "2013-05-22T21:43:15Z")
Oddly, although I also have high-range hearing loss I hit 15,500. Much better than I thought. It also had to cut through the tinnitus. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/5 "2013-05-22T21:54:59Z")
13,083 for me. Worse than I would have thought. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/6 "2013-05-22T22:13:09Z")
My ears go as high as 12541 Hz. I used to be able to hear unusually high sounds for my age, but I’m losing my higher frequencies. Maybe because I’m a musician and I’ve been exposed to some loud sounds? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/7 "2013-05-22T22:18:53Z")
something’s wrong there. I come in at about 15250 Hz too, but using a tone generator app I can perceive up to about 17 kHz. What’s the sampling rate of the audio portion of that YT vid? ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/8 "2013-05-22T22:29:26Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > My ears go as high as 12541 Hz. I used to be able to hear unusually high sounds for my age, but I’m losing my higher frequencies. Maybe because I’m a musician and I’ve been exposed to some loud sounds? Nah, you can be exposed to 100 dBA for up to two hours a day safely according to OSHA’s regulations. I got my dad to put an SPL meter that we have up to my year closest to the instrument while playing an open e string as fucking loud as I can. It came out to be in the high 90’s to low 100’s. But then again, I really don’t practice much more than a half hour usually. I am actually pretty low for my age (15). Most of my classmates can go much further. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/9 "2013-05-22T23:11:43Z")
16,000 at 50 years of age. I can still hear the calls of cedar waxwings; some older birders lose the ability to hear such high-pitched calls. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/10 "2013-05-23T01:56:21Z")
15,875 Hz, with the sound turned up. The first time, I had the sound set so that the person’s voice would be normal volume, and only got close to 13,000. There’s some quiet hissy stuff I could hear when it said the frequency was higher than that, that kind of came and went, but I suspect that’s some kind of audio artifact bleeding down to lower frequencies. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/11 "2013-05-23T01:56:57Z")
Just over 16,000Hz here, 27 years old, male. My last audiology test came back as passing with “flying colors” as the doctor put it. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/12 "2013-05-23T02:08:16Z")
I tried downloading the program, linked from the video page, to see if I’d get the same result, but when I ran it, my sound mixer kept muting it. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/13 "2013-05-23T02:15:11Z")
Waste of time. We don’t know what the hardware speaker or headphone response is for each individual. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/14 "2013-05-23T02:36:00Z")
I used earbuds with my phone and could hear it almost as soon as the test started, which puts my 42-year-old ears with tinnitus in the 18,500 range. So, I dunno. The tinnitus is pretty high-pitched, in line with what electronics emit, and I can hear that stuff. Does that mean one day I won’t hear the tinnitus any more? Because that would be neat. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/15 "2013-05-23T03:38:31Z")
the highest my ears go is halfway up my head. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/16 "2013-05-23T03:40:05Z")
My ears go up to 11! But on this test, I came in at 15,900. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/17 "2013-05-23T03:44:20Z")
I’m fairly sure the video test is junk. I can use an offline tone generator and clearly hear tones up to 19,500 Hz. The video jumps in at just about 16 kHz. I don’t know exactly which compression algorithm they use, but I doubt it’s a coincidence that many encoders have a frequency cutoff of 16 kHz. In other words, the video isn’t actually playing anything above that, since the lossy compression cuts out at that point. There is still a hissing sound all the way up, but that’s just noise and not the displayed frequency. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/18 "2013-05-23T03:51:51Z")
About 9600 is all I got. I think I’ve always been this way. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/19 "2013-05-23T04:42:53Z")
15,916 is what I got; round that for response time and figure 16K. 34 year old male. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067/20 "2013-05-23T05:21:35Z")
So I guess everyone is… Over 9000? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-test-how-high-do-your-ears-go/659067.md?page=2)