I think you're overthinking it. It's not so rare not to hear above 13Khz, despite all the snob-elitist claims.

 

Some people can't hear above 13k and yet they claim they can hear aliasing.

 

@Jackson12 If I were you I'd just get an ENT specialist to check your ears for obstructions first.

The two things that effect us all with age, are that we all become long-sighted because the muscles of the eye get older (and the people who were originally short-sighted become both long & short-sighted!), and secondly that we all lose top-end as well as some level (volume) of our ears.
I think you are too young to have this just yet. But hey, you'not really missing out on a lot and you can still mix a great record!
As some of my elder producer friends are still doing in their mid 70s! I wonder how their top-end is?

 

Last edited: Apr 16, 2020

I am 54. I can't hear squat beyond ~13.5 khz and i don't care much either lol. My doc says it's a blessing that i can even go to 13.5 khz. Most peeps of my age don't go over 11-12 khz.

 

2 days ago I connected my amplifier to my computer and I tried to play these high frequencies very loud so I could hear them, I was able to hear up to 15khz but the day after I started having tinnitus (it is not very bad but whenever it is silent I def hear ringing in my ears) today also I am having a bad headache. I am not sure if it is from these frequencies or something else maybe. Can you guys do me a favor and go to this website :
https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/

and tell me your age and how far you can listen in Hz. Because I brought some people to do test for, they had same results as me. Is it true that most people my age would hear up to 17khz sine-wave ? and I am saying pure sine-wave because it has only one harmonic. I can hear even 20Khz if it is square wave or something else

 

Up to 16kHz. Above it seems to go up and down and it's a bit guessing.

My age is top secret but I'm a bit older than you.

 

thank you, supposing you had a moderate volume, at what frequency you started to have difficulties to hear and had to turn up the volume ? me at 8k, and I needed to turn the volume really loud to reach 13khz and above

 

10kHz. The higher the wave went, the more I had to turn up the volume, but that's normal for everyone (the principle I mean).

 

Oh, I also have tinnitus. I'm 45 and testing this tone-generator I hear until 14.8Khz more or less at a pretty high but not huge volume. Don't have a clue how much I heard before though.

In my case I got it after a gig/metal disco combo ages ago. Like one week after the damned tinnitus improved a little and a slight pain in my right ear disappeared. Don't remember if I had headache.

I know is stressful but don't abuse testing your ears, I got a temporary tinnitus raise myself just for testing them a while ago.

 

Totally feasible. You just have to record at 8Khz

 

I was reading today about speakers and I understood that many ones actually don't have a good frequency response on high frequencies, I also read that many of these cheap computer speakers has a frequency response of 85hz to 16khz. could this be the reason why I didn't hear these high frequencies ? I mean I don't have studio monitors or good quality speakers anyway, I did all tests on a 20 dollar cheap chinese speakers, but I thought unlike low frequencies, high frequencies are easily reproduced through smaller and cheaper speakers... what do you think ?

 

If you mean the speakers in a laptop, they start around 120hz I thought?
But if you mean some external desktop things, maybe true. I don't know.

Yes, but not necessarily "cheaper"!
So this is why we use plugins like Waves MaxxBass to create harmonics from the low end so they fulfill what is missing on the small speakers.

 

on which speakers ?

 

You need less amplification to make high freqs audible, but a high quality tweeter still sounds better than a low quality one.

 

Hey guys, is there any sound meter app that measure all frequencies equally ? Seems like my sound-meter measure frequencies just the way we humans perceive sound, it will shows that there's signal when the sine-wave is playing at mid frequencies, the signal will get weaker the higher or lower the sinewave goes (although the input signal and the output signal are equal on all fequencies) if the frequency goes beyond 6khz the soundmeter will be indicating 38db (which is what my silent room is like) so it is showing no audio signal, but I hear sound anyway. So is there anyway I can tell if there is sound playing back in my speaker or not ? I wanna know this because I want to play 13khz + frequencies and make sure if the problem is from my ears or from my poor speakers.

 

it's a bit more complicated to measure what you need,
human hearing curve gradually changes according to actual volume you listen at, so first you need to properly measure what loudness/volume you're playing sounds at,
depending on device/gear you listen at, you may be already hearing "uneven" response, so you might want to compensate/reference those (for ex. each of my speakers has different frequency response in the room, so I compensate each with EQ a bit different),
also you can then add another EQ "ear" correction/compensation curves before the measurement/analysis plugins/tools within the measurement plugin chain to compensate measurement in regard to human hearing curves

 

You should definitely get your ears checked out by a doctor. Your hearing loss starts right after 4 kHz which is slightly above the area where human hearing ist most sensitive (which is 3,2 to 3,5 kHz, which is the center frequency for voice recognition). Maybe your auditory canals are jamed with wax which is not uncommon. But maybe it's something else. Anyway, a guy at your age should not have hearing problems in this frequency range in normal circumstances. If the abilty to hear high frequencies would start around 10 to 12 kHz I wouldn't be alarmed, but 4 kHz is not really that high. Make sure to stay hydrated. It impacts hearing as well.

 

Update : after few weeks of not using headphones and hearing music or TV only at low volume, I re-did the test and I'm a bit better. I am able now to hear 14.4 khz sine-wave, maximum volume on my computer speakers (before it was 13.5khz) and I am able to hear 8khz at 40db on the hearing test app (before it was 55db at 8khz). Is this good news ? does this means that my ears are okay and I just was stressed and needed to relax ? can my hearing improve more ?

PS : I don't have access to audiologist, if I did I would.

 

That could mean you need more break. I was an excessive headphones user back then. I felt my hearing clogged. Now I use headphones occasionally, listen to my studio monitors at low volume and I feel that I can hear things more clearly.

 

Last edited: May 10, 2020

That's good news. I'd carry on this way and see if it improves even more.