hearing

[bloke]

With this crappy laptop and Walgreens $5 headphones, I lose these tones right around 11,000 hz...and I'm approaching 66 years of age.

(WARNING !!! DON'T TURN IT UP TOO LOUD !!!)

I've spoken - in the past - of listening to overtones generated above our primary generated pitches on our tubas, and I've also spoken of annoying (out of tune with music) "difference" tones (NOT overtones, but tones generated by the DIFFERENCE in the hz - pitch minus pitch - between two high-pitched instruments) playing a duet.

How's your hearing?
' listened to too much metal, or buffed too many sousaphone bells without ear protection...??

https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/

[Ace]

11kHz at 65 is pretty good. I think my roll off is around 7kHz anymore.

[UncleBeer]

Most folks get a big dip around 3-4k Hz as they age.

My secondary field for the DMA was Music & Medicine. What I hadn't realized 'til I took all these classes was that every time we practice, we lose some hearing. Some through normal air transmission, but some through bone conduction as well. No real solutions, either: ear plugs? No thanks.

[the elephant]

I am aging. I can hear from 23 Hz to 13,350 Hz, but I have serious blank spots due to damage suffered while I was in the Army. I have a complete dead zone around 10,250 to 10,500 (more or less) and then the tone comes back very strong. This happens in a few more places between there and my top-off around 13,350. Some very discrete tones also disappear and seem to be the tones of my tinnitus. Very interesting. I will have to try and identify these more accurately and look into masking technology to help me not go batty on days when it is really bad.

Thanks! Bookmarked!

[Ace]

I am aging. I can hear from 23 Hz to 13,350 Hz, but I have serious blank spots due to damage suffered while I was in the Army. I have a complete dead zone around 10,250 to 10,500 (more or less) and then the tone comes back very strong. This happens in a few more places between there and my top-off around 13,350. Some very discrete tones also disappear and seem to be the tones of my tinnitus. Very interesting. I will have to try and identify these more accurately and look into masking technology to help me not go batty on days when it is really bad.

Thanks! Bookmarked!

Interesting post, Wade. Like you I was an Army bandsman, 1959-1965. However, I was able to prove that the Army ruined the hearing in my left ear during Basic Combat Training. I was near a simulated grenade explosion that had been placed too close to the troops on the edge of the infiltration course, and my left ear rang for two weeks afterward. I promptly reported to the base hospital at Fort Ord CA to get an audiology exam. The Doctor said the hearing in the left ear was sharply degraded from when I had a hearing exam just a few months earlier at the induction station in Los Angeles. A year later I was in the 21st Army Band at Fort Lewis WA and I had another exam. Hearing in the left ear had further deteriorated. All of these tests were in my Service File when I applied for Veterans Administration disability benefits in 2015, and I was promptly awarded a 20% disability rating, $301 per month. In the "old Army" no earplugs were standard issue, even to the Artillery. Today's Army shows some respect for the troops by issuing high-quality ear plugs.

Ace

[Jperry1466]

At 71, mine rolls out at 6,700 herz. I do have hearing aids that I wear when I want to hear a conversaton, but not for music. I can hear the full range of instruments just fine. A lifetime of shooting/hunting with no hearing protection (the stupidity of youth), plus teaching at two schools with "traditions" - one school and its rival played a football game for an old brass train bell that came off a steam locomotive. Where did they place it for the rest of the season? In front of the band, of course. Imagine looking up and seeing that 160 kids were playing at the top of their lungs, and the director (me) can't hear them. The last school started a little "spirit" thing of green bean cans filled with BBs - not bad until it morphed into propane bottles filled with ball bearings. I thought my wife was intentionally mumbling in the other room with her back turned to me until I got these aids. Since I was still doing some teaching and judging, the Texas Workforce Commission 2/3 of the cost, but they weren't cheap. It is part of aging for men, but we and others tend to accelerate it.

[donn]

Gets weird above 13,000 -- abrupt drop-off here and there, pitches jump up and down and do harmony. That's turned up. At medium volume setting, I don't get much above 12,000.

The notes chart makes a very bad musical instrument (button at the right with an eighth note by it.) Play Happy Birthday or something (don't worry, no can hear you because you have your headphones on, so nothing to worry about regarding the copyright.) Ironically awful scale, it seems to me.

[GC]

My speech discrimination is slowly fading, and that's mostly from the 1kHz-4kHz range.

[bloke]

I reported 11,000, but I kept the volume low. I’m not curious enough - right now - to go back, turn it up, and check again.

OK...
I went back, cranked the volume, put on (again: $5 Walgreens) headphones, and heard easily (LOUD volume setting) up to c. 12K hz., as well as most of the range up to the top of the scale - though some of the pitches "way up there" were sounding LOWER than I knew they had to be.

[Rick Denney]

The only 12 KHz signal I can hear well is the tea-kettle tinnitus in my left ear.

I do all sorts of equalization of sound systems and bias adjustment of old tape machines, and the 15 KHz test tone for the latter is just silence for me. I have to use instrumentation to know if it is even working.

At 64, this is age-appropriate. I used to be able to clearly hear the 19-KHz Flyback transformer in CRT computer monitors.

Rick “it’s good to be a tuba player” Denney

[Three Valves]

I have a complete dead zone around 10,250 to 10,500 (more or less) and then the tone comes back very strong.

That must be the range my wife speaks in, the first three times she asks me to do/not to do something.

[the elephant]

That must be the range my wife speaks in, the first three times she asks me to do/not to do something.

Ladies and gentlemen — while this is not a contest — WE HAVE A WINNER!

[bloke]

When I'm asked questions by the boss, am concentrating, and don't reply, the next thing the boss says is, "ok...no answer", to which I respond in the following way:

[Mary Ann]

I'm good from 28HZ up to about 11k but I had to turn up the volume. I knew the highs were leaving but have no idea why. Maybe too much violin? And that stint in the rock band? My left ear has always heard less than my right because of a burst ear drum when I was three. It hears but not nearly as well, although I haven't had to say "what?" until the last couple of years.

Lately, and even more disconcerting, when listening to A440 and playing my A string, I cannot tell whether it is higher or lower than the tone. I can still hear beats to tune it but have to play with it instead of back and forth. That is REALLY upsetting for "perfect pitch MA." Which has also slid flat, but I've read that is typical starting at about 60, and now I'm 73.

Still good-looking though, and I'll take that. Just look at my picture!

[GC]

The only 12 KHz signal I can hear well is the tea-kettle tinnitus in my left ear.

I do all sorts of equalization of sound systems and bias adjustment of old tape machines, and the 15 KHz test tone for the latter is just silence for me. I have to use instrumentation to know if it is even working.

At 64, this is age-appropriate. I used to be able to clearly hear the 19-KHz Flyback transformer in CRT computer monitors.

Rick “it’s good to be a tuba player” Denney

Glad you mentioned the tinnitus. Part of my tested hearing loss is because of the tinnitus I've had since I was a teenager; it masks high frequencies, especially 3K and up. Treble with sufficient volume can push through it, but I don't necessarily want sizzle and screech pushing through. My grandkids shrieking to hear themselves and outdo each other could certainly push through (hyper-rich harmonic content!). I'm glad they outgrew it.