# I can't hear 16,000hz and up (can you?) changes to system design?



## 3cyltrbo (Apr 11, 2011)

Thanks to the thread "What SQ discs do you have", I dl'd a copy of the Focal demo discs. 

One of the discs has individual frequency tracks and I was playing with it this weekend. Up to 12,000hz I could hear no problem but 16,000hz I heard NOTHING. I had to ask my girlfriend 3 times if there was anything playing, I even had her take control of the play/pause button so that she could confirm the sound she was hearing started and stopped with her control. 

Needless to say I'm a little sad I can't hear that high anymore (not sure if its age related (38) or if I never had the ability.

I'm also pretty frustrated that if I can't hear that high --- why would I still go out of my way with my next system (competing in mind) to have full coverage to frequencies I will never ever hear! Why wouldn't I just make do with a really good fullranger (AP 3.5" / TB bamboo 3.5" / HAT etc...) that would play decently through 10,000hz or even 12,000hz 



So the questions are:

-Can you hear that high? 

-When you were designing your competition system, did you factor in appropriate capacity to reproduce all frequencies from 20-20,000hz ?

-Is there still alot of emphasis given to RTA scores? (the last time I was competing full time (1994-1996) and the last time I was at the finals (1999) Having a perfect (or near perfect) RTA score was a huge push for most SQ competitors (and it was heavily weighted in scoring)?

Cheers

Will


----------



## sqshoestring (Jun 19, 2007)

That is natural to happen with age, faster if you listen to lots of loud stuff lol. Lot of people running a FR just for that reason most go for 10-15K tops with some EQ and don't worry about higher. I don't know about comps, unless the judges are young only a RTA is going to find it. Last time I tried I could just hear 16K and I noticed it was extremely directional from the tweeter, it was a little bookshelf home speaker with a cone tweeter.

On the other hand if you run a tweeter near any of them will get up there if you can hear it or not.

Funny how people ask me why I bother with 20-30Hz in my car, but I know when its there or not in fact I don't even have to hear it lol.


----------



## Funky Pup (Jun 27, 2011)

I can hear 20khz. Be glad that you can't. I'm working on damaging my hearing int he hopes that I'll no longer be able to hear anything above 15khz or so. Just imagine hearing harmonic resonance of everything that has a motor, all your household appliances, etc.. It's a curse, not a blessing.


----------



## b&camp (Jan 27, 2011)

my hearing stops like it hit a wall at 16kHz


----------



## BuickGN (May 29, 2009)

I can hear 20k very well..... Which makes me wonder if that's why several of my friends say I like my tweeters dull and if I let them eq it to their liking it's super bright to me.


----------



## sqshoestring (Jun 19, 2007)

I used to hear old TVs squeal, I hated it.


----------



## elparner (Oct 20, 2007)

Do the test  

Hearing Test - Can you hear it?


----------



## UNBROKEN (Sep 25, 2009)

Nothing over 11K for me.


----------



## slade1274 (Mar 25, 2008)

Funky Pup said:


> .....Just imagine hearing harmonic resonance of everything that has a motor, all your household appliances, etc.. It's a curse, not a blessing.


this

18.5 is my current limit......


----------



## myhikingboots (Oct 28, 2010)

3cyltrbo said:


> Thanks to the thread "What SQ discs do you have", I dl'd a copy of the Focal demo discs.
> 
> One of the discs has individual frequency tracks and I was playing with it this weekend. Up to 12,000hz I could hear no problem but 16,000hz I heard NOTHING. I had to ask my girlfriend 3 times if there was anything playing, I even had her take control of the play/pause button so that she could confirm the sound she was hearing started and stopped with her control.
> 
> ...


What a drag it is getting old!

I have had a high frequency hearing loss in my left ear for years now, but I thought my right ear was fine until the exact same thing that you described happened to me. And yes I was bummed! But hey look at the bright side (pun intended) we don't have to spend waisted money on tweeters and amps! Definitely going with widebanders as soon as I can afford them. Damn why does all of this good equipment cost so damn much!

Ps. Your sight is next.


----------



## chevbowtie22 (Nov 23, 2008)

Well judging by that hearing test and my laptop's sweet speakers :lol: it looks like somewhere inbetween 15k and 16k is my limit. Wow.


----------



## sqcomp (Sep 21, 2009)

Listening with ATH-M50s cans:

16kHz I can hear...17kHz is very faint...18kHz? Nope.

Lemme try it with the IASCA German Maestro 8.35D:

same results. Interesting test!


----------



## Ruleslawyer (Jun 15, 2011)

I can hear 21k. That is I can hear *something* its more like a pressure in my ear than an actual tone though. 17.4k is the highest tone I can hear clearly. 22k I hear nothing. However anything above 20k I doubt the ability of my headphones.


----------



## myhikingboots (Oct 28, 2010)

elparner said:


> Do the test
> 
> Hearing Test - Can you hear it?


Lol! I was trying this test last night through my computer speakers and started out at the highest setting and nothing, then the next lower and couldn't hear a thing. Kept going all the way to 8000 and still nothing. Had my hearing gotten that bad? Turned up the volume and nothing. Now I was getting worried, but then I realized that my earphones were hooked up and nothing indeed was coming through the speakers! Anyway I can only hear 12000 and below. So no need for tweets for me!


----------



## fish (Jun 30, 2007)

15k hz is my limit, it was like 17k about a year ago.  Maybe horns are an option afterall.


----------



## Schizm (Jun 12, 2011)

Funky Pup said:


> I can hear 20khz. Be glad that you can't. I'm working on damaging my hearing int he hopes that I'll no longer be able to hear anything above 15khz or so. Just imagine hearing harmonic resonance of everything that has a motor, all your household appliances, etc.. It's a curse, not a blessing.


Yeah it's odd how you can hear the electrical whine of an old tube monitor but have trouble hearing certain lower freqs. Well the last part I'm convinced has happened to me since I can't hear the tv at the super low volumes my mom seems to be able to listen to at night lol.


----------



## Schizm (Jun 12, 2011)

I hate iPhones sometimes. Wouldn't let me select edit or even quote again. 

I did the hearing test and I couldn't hear a tone for 16k just a faint click before and after the tone like all the other tones. But I COULD hear 17k and 17.4k. 18k+ was just like 16k to me, nothing.

Edit add: the above results were with my left ear. My right ear is significantly worse I could only hear up to14k


----------



## Brian_smith06 (Jan 31, 2008)

Im not sure how high my hearing goes but every system I have had always gets anything above 16k cut


----------



## fish (Jun 30, 2007)

Schizm said:


> I did the hearing test and I couldn't hear a tone for 16k just a faint click before and after the tone like all the other tones. But I COULD hear 17k and 17.4k. 18k+ was just like 16k to me, nothing.




Hmmm... that's strange.


----------



## sqshoestring (Jun 19, 2007)

This is cool, though my PC speakers don't seem to do the best lol
Equal loudness contours and audiometry - Test your own hearing


----------



## trojan fan (Nov 4, 2007)

sqshoestring said:


> This is cool, though my PC speakers don't seem to do the best lol
> Equal loudness contours and audiometry - Test your own hearing



Thanks for the link....I like it


----------



## Schizm (Jun 12, 2011)

fish said:


> Hmmm... that's strange.


This morning I tested it off my iPhone speaker instead of a set of headphones that just had one working speaker. 

I could hear 16k with both ears but it wasuch quieter in my right ear. So that one working speaker wasn't working so well. And since my iPhone wasn't sitting IN my ears just near them, I could barely hear 17.4k in my left ear. Assuming the iPhone speaker is good enough.


----------



## ecbmxer (Dec 1, 2010)

That was good link! I can hear 16k easily, not really much above that.


----------



## bmiller1 (Mar 7, 2010)

Subscribed for when I can get home so people don't look at me like I'm an idiot here at work.


----------



## PottersField (Mar 18, 2011)

I have a dog whistle app on my Pre that is variable from 12-22kHz and I can hear 15kHz very clearly, but 16kHz is pretty faint. Above that and I can't hear a damn thing but it drives my dogs barking mad  The only reason I didn't go with widebanders in my car was because the ones I wanted were too deep to fit in my doors.  Oh well, I've got noticeable hearing loss in my right ear that just about defeats the purpose of setting up a dedicated front stage as it is.


----------



## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

One good reason may be because most music doesnt have high volumes on anything higher than 10Khz. Just like most music music starts at 32hz and others at 64hz, dont know why some bother to try to go below 32hz, are they actually going to listen to sine waves all the time? Trust me I've seen the spectrum of most music & compared.


----------



## Intruder (Dec 6, 2010)

I took a hearing test when I was 16 and I could hear close to or even above 20KHz. I can still hear the 18KHz tone on that page, but it's a lot softer than the 16KHz tone.

I get very frustrated when I hear subtleties in songs and I point them out to my dad and he looks at me like I'm making stuff up. I dread the day when I'll be like him. lol


----------



## Salami (Oct 10, 2007)

I can't hear a ****ing thing but my wife is in the next room going "what is that noise?"


----------



## mrfreeze (Jun 7, 2011)

Salami said:


> I can't hear a ****ing thing but my wife is in the next room going "what is that noise?"


LoL..I'm kinda the same way, I can hear up to 12k then the wife was asking me the same thing.:laugh:


----------



## BuickGN (May 29, 2009)

TrickyRicky said:


> One good reason may be because most music doesnt have high volumes on anything higher than 10Khz. Just like most music music starts at 32hz and others at 64hz, dont know why some bother to try to go below 32hz, are they actually going to listen to sine waves all the time? Trust me I've seen the spectrum of most music & compared.


I can't speak for anyone else but it's important to me to have a system that can reproduce the entire range. My subs will go down to 10hz and well past 150hz, 32hz is effortless. I didn't realize what I was missing until I had a system capable of that. It just seems more dynamic with more impact on the low end. I've found a few songs that the subsonic filter of the MS8 interferes on. I have it set as low as it will go which is [email protected] and if I bypass it, I get more super low bass and a fuller sound. Some of this is just for the feel of the bass.

Back to the topic, I guess I'm really lucky I can hear 20khz at 34yrs old considering the abuse my ears have been though starting when I was 17 and driving around with open exhaust and spending most weekends at the track.


----------



## samos69 (Mar 8, 2011)

Funky Pup said:


> I can hear 20khz. Be glad that you can't. I'm working on damaging my hearing int he hopes that I'll no longer be able to hear anything above 15khz or so. Just imagine hearing harmonic resonance of everything that has a motor, all your household appliances, etc.. It's a curse, not a blessing.


This also annoys the hell out of me... I hear it in all sorts of appliances!

That mosquito ringtone link tops out at 18khz which was quite audible so I assume my upper limit is above that..


----------

