How high can *you* hear?

[darkoshi]

I can hear a 12 kHz sound well. I can hear a 13 kHz sound, but it is very faint unless I turn the volume up. I can hear a 14 kHz sound faintly too, but have to turn the volume even higher. I can't hear 15 kHz, even at high volume.
I'm 40 years old.

In March 2008 (when I was 36 years old), I took the 2nd hearing test below and (by increasing the volume on my computer speakers) was able to hear all the frequencies except the last one. That means that in the last 4 years, I've lost a significant amount of high frequency hearing.

What is the highest frequency you can hear (and do you have to turn the volume up high?), and how old are you?

hearing test 1 (includes 13 and 14 kHz samples)

hearing test 2

hearing test 3

hearing test 4


I was hoping to find some graphs that show for given age groups, what the average highest audible frequencies are. But I didn't find any such graphs. If you know of any, please point them out for me.

I very rarely listen to music with headphones, and when I do, I don't play it very loud. I'm not regularly around loud industrial noise. So I wasn't expecting to have much high frequency hearing loss. But apparently I do.


According to this page, 64 kbps MP3 files cut off at about 11 kHz, and 96 kbps MP3 files cut off at about 15 kHz. Given that I can only hear well up to about 12 kHz, it makes sense that I can't tell the difference between MP3 files encoded at higher than 64 kbps.

Comments

[hebinekohime]

1st test: I can hear the 21kHz sound, but I can't hear 20kHz and I can only just barely hear 19kHz if I turn the volume up. Weird.

2nd test: I can only hear up to 17.7, and only well up to 16.7.

3rd test: I can hear 21kHz again, but not 19 or 20.

4th test: up to 18kHz.

I'm 31.

[passionrlsusall.livejournal.com]

Took the first test: can't here 22,000 Hz or 20 or 50.
Second test: couldn't here 22.4 kHz
test 3: confirms, 22 kHz can't be heard by me
test 4: 20 Hz part of the time (sup with that?), 30-60 Hz no.

Interesting tests! I especially want to test my dad later, since we know he has hearing loss though he would never admit it.

So I guess my hearing in the upper range is pretty good for a 27-year-old (I haven't done a whole lot of listening to loud music), but what's up with my hearing in the lower range? Did you read anything about whether people get hearing loss at the low end or when or why? My computer speakers aren't great also, and for the 2 tests that had low ranges, a couple of the frequencies I could hear at first (I think..there was a low trilling sound) but not when replayed, so maybe that has to do with it?

[darkoshi]

The problems with the low tones could be because of the speakers.
On the first test, the 15 and 20 Hz seem louder/higher-pitched to me than the 50 Hz, which might indicate my speakers are not making the sounds right.
On the last test, the 20 through 60 all sound pretty much the same to me, except that the 60 has more vibration to it.

I was only searching on high-frequency hearing loss, so I didn't come across anything about low-frequency loss.

[passionrlsusall.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the higher frequency tones sound out of order to me too...and I know I don't have the greatest speakers, so I don't think the results are valid at all. Tried giving it to my mom too, and she could here some then not others than others even higher again so it made no sense.