# Where's the recommended place to get hearing tested? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 24, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-recommended-place-to-get-hearing-tested/705499 "2014-11-24T18:11:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-recommended-place-to-get-hearing-tested/705499/1 "2014-11-24T18:11:09Z")
I discovered recently that I’m at a age that can no longer hear the high frequencies. I think that’s above 9500 k hz or so. Happens to everybody as they approach 50. It’s a good time to see how the ears are holding up. I haven’t had a hearing testg as an adult. Where’s a good place to get my hearing tested \*\* that won’t try to sell me\*\* a hearing aid? Seems pointless to see a doctor when there’s nothing wrong. I just want to find out how my hearing is holding up after being on this planet almost 50 years. I’ve always been very aware of the dangers of hearing loss. My grandmother was stone deaf by age 70. My dad suffered hearing 70% loss working on the flight line in the air force. I keep music at a reasonable level. Never, ever use ear buds or headphones. My one concern is the multiple fans in our dept’s file server. The file server was in my office for a decade. I’m a bit concerned what that might have done. There was at least three fans in it and I had my pc workstation too. ---
**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:** [November 24, 2014, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-recommended-place-to-get-hearing-tested/705499/2 "2014-11-24T18:21:23Z")
well, some of those urgent care/occupational health centers like Concentra offer such testing, but the usual occupational hearing test only goes up to 8 kHz (I think.) ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-recommended-place-to-get-hearing-tested/705499/3 "2014-11-24T18:35:09Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > well, some of those urgent care/occupational health centers like Concentra offer such testing, but the usual occupational hearing test only goes up to 8 kHz (I think.) Interesting point. Many of the places that don’t shill for hearing aid vendors probably specialize in “fitness for duty” evaluations that really are only screening whether or not your hearing is good enough to do X job. It’s sort of like pilot or commercial driver medical evaluations - they don’t give much more than a little less than two shits whether or not your color vision is normal for your age, exceptional, or marginal, only whether or not your color vision is good enough to pass Department of Transportation Regulation 10-Q-V-44 or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-recommended-place-to-get-hearing-tested/705499/4 "2014-11-24T18:43:13Z")
I can recall getting my hearing tested in Elementary School and I think again in 10th grade. All the students were tested. After becoming an Adult it’s like nobody cares if you can hear or not. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-recommended-place-to-get-hearing-tested/705499/5 "2014-11-24T22:00:43Z")
Call your doctor’s office, tell them what you want, ask them to recommend an audiologist. Then, if the audiologist tries to sell you a hearing aid, bitch to your doctor. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-recommended-place-to-get-hearing-tested/705499/6 "2014-11-24T22:32:30Z")
My primary care doc does a hearing test during my annual checkup. He never tries to sell me anything. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-recommended-place-to-get-hearing-tested/705499/7 "2014-11-24T22:34:17Z")
Costco has a good reputation for reasonable prices for hearing aids: > **[Costco Hearing Aid](https://www.costco.com/hearing-aid-center.html)** > > Find a great collection of Costco Hearing Aid at Costco. Enjoy low warehouse prices on name-brand Costco Hearing Aid products. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-recommended-place-to-get-hearing-tested/705499/8 "2014-11-24T22:56:40Z")
My wife’s insurance company makes recommendations for anything she asks. Her fist hearing test was free. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-recommended-place-to-get-hearing-tested/705499/9 "2014-11-25T03:09:29Z")
A colleague went to an audiologist who told him that he would gladly sell him a hearing aid, but it wouldn’t help since his problem was loss of processing speed. He was in his late 80s. So not every audiologist is only in the business of selling. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-recommended-place-to-get-hearing-tested/705499/10 "2014-11-25T22:11:41Z")
I’ll get an audiologist appointment. Thank you for your help. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-recommended-place-to-get-hearing-tested/705499/11 "2014-11-26T03:28:13Z")
If you just want to see if you can hear up to 9k, there is [an open source tool that runs on Windows](http://sourceforge.net/projects/wavc/) and will run a simple test. There is a more sophisticated hearing test called Home Audiometer Hearing Test from Timo Esser for $20 [here](http://www.esseraudio.com/en/home-audiometer-hearing-test-software-for-windows-following-iso-procedure-ear-deaf/ha-dl-en.html), but I was never able to get the stupid demo mode to work, which removed any incentive to pay $20 to unlock it.