Who can hear above 20Khz?

This morning I was experimenting with different test frequencies and I was curious enough to test my own hearing. I sat down in front of my speakers and as the numbers rose I could clearly hear above 20,000Hz! I investigated further using isolated tones from 20,000Hz and 23,000Hz and discovered my hearing doesn't start rolling off until about 21,500Hz. I've triple checked to make sure no kind of distortion of other noises could have skewed my results. So far it shows me that the standard 20-20Khz range for hearing it's just the "average" range and that people many have small deviations.

 

I've lost some of the high frequencies, but that's normal as we age. I'm able to hear up to around 16 kHz currently. I turned 40 last year, so I'm not surprised I've lost a little on the high end. My hearing is normal otherwise despite some mild tinnitus, but it's not really bothersome at this point. I would strongly encourage everyone to use hearing protection around loud noise to help preserve hearing as much as possible.

 

I'm not doing any testing man, I'm 71 and want to still argue on this and other forums.

 

I hear nothing above 13Khz anymore. I'm 46.

 

I, too, was shocked when I played a 20k test tone in my audio room. That room is very quiet, especially at night, and 20k was no problem at all to detect. I didn't go any higher though. I'm sure I don't hear it as loudly as I would other frequencies, but I can at least hear it, apparently.

 

I can hear a difference between 44.1 kHz and high res like 96 kHz or 192 kHz sampling.
The science folks tell me the only potential difference is that the high res has frequencies above 20 kHz that you can't hear.
Yet I hear a difference.
Therefore I must be able to hear above 20 kHz.
Q.E.D.

 

21.5kHz produced how exactly & at what loudness level?.. Are you sure you're not hearing some intermodulation distortion products? I can hear up to 18kHz, but need to pump the volume of my headphone amp to the max to do that when running a standard digital test sweep (sampled at 48kHz, IIRC).

 

How much action is really taking place about 20K? Not a rhetorical question, I'm just wondering if that high a frequency wouldn't come off as bright and/or harsh.

 

I believe in most cases it´s not actually the clean tone one hears in these cases, it´s distortion products. What I have seen very few can in reality hear above 16kHz in clean tones.

 

Well, not necessarily. The whole hi-res question is still far from being answered, IMO--why do some people perceive a difference when the frequencies are beyond the range of human hearing? My guess is that other parts of the body besides the ears pick up these higher frequencies, but since our perception of sound is currently limited to our ears, we think we're "hearing" something that maybe the bones in the face are picking up. I can tell the difference between hi-res and CD-res, too, but to me it "feels" better more than it "sounds" better. My ears are not necessarily picking up anything above 20 kHz.

 

If you think you can hear 20khz and above you should have your hearing checked professionally. I'd bet my next 2 paychecks the doctor would say otherwise.

 

The ontological proof of high res.

 

I agree with what you said. I really should have put a big winking grin smiley after my post. Along with the popcorn bucket.

 

I was playing a 192/24 file is generated in Adobe Audition through my speakers. I also confirmed the tone on headphones too. Checking with a high quality microphone and the Audition Spectrum analyzer revealed little to no distortion. I do believe I was hearing a clean tone, not IDM.

 

I'm the same. I'm 54 but when I was your age I did a crack test and 13.5khz is what it was. It was the same when I did a second test at the age of 53. A mastering engineer friend was there with me when I did the second test and he could go up to just a smidge below 20khz.

 

I'm with you - I think there's more involved than test tones or Dr's exams.

 

I did a test with my smartphone, an app called Frequency Generator and headphones. Not ideal test conditions, i also don't know how high the headphones go. I could hear up to ~15k (age 42).

The funny thing was, that when i pushed from 10k upwards in a continuous rising tone, it got silent around 14k. But when I chose 15k and then switched it on, I could clearly hear it, but just for a few seconds, and then my ears seemed to fade it out into the usual background noise. I don't know if it's my ears or the app, or do i have an unknown tinitus above 15k?

It's an annoying sound anyway, a sound to drive dogs mad and give you a toothache. Nothing you need to be able to hear. It's not like you hear the angels sing above 20k.

 

I've experienced this too with extreme high frequencies. My guess is that it's so faint and obscure that the brain deems it "not relevant" to your sensory input. I also know that it's much easier to detect extreme highs if they abruptly turn on and off rather than a sweep or fade, which makes sense.

 

Regardless of the volume, there will be an absolute upper frequency limit to any individual's hearing; that being said, it's still helpful to know how much amplification is necessary to hear a given frequency. I'm pretty lucky compared to some; at age 62 I can hear a 16 kHz tone amplified about 26 dB above my 1 kHz threshold, although I can't hear 17 kHz even amplified as much as my headphone amp will go.

 

I can feel frequencies up to 48kHz.

 

What I know these types of high tones are also very damaging to ones hearing, one should really avoid these.

 

How does it feel?

 

Tickles

 

For me it feels like a dog squirming in my lap.

 

I'm done at about 11KHz. Age and exposure to loud, live music in my earlier years are the likely culprits.