Hearing Test: What Frequencies Can You Hear?

The Inevitable Decline of Hearing

The human body deteriorates in many ways as it ages. While some functions can be preserved or extended, others inevitably decline. A prime example is the ear. Over the years, our ability to perceive high frequencies gradually diminishes. However, external factors can accelerate this loss prematurely. Do you want to know how well your ears work? If so, we have a video for you.

Sound Quality: A Subjective Debate

Discussions about "sound quality" in forums and social media have reached an intensity akin to an orbital bombardment. Meanwhile, an industry is determined to speculate and exaggerate to earn extra cash, selling "premium" products for thousands of dollars that have no real effect.

The problem is that every opinion about audio is subjective, and there's a simple reason: hearing deteriorates. Not only do we face a natural loss of our auditory capacity and the tricks the brain plays, but there are also multiple factors that can reduce it even further.

The Video Test

The question is: How deteriorated are our ears really? The web has helped us answer (in part) that question with various tests. In the video, participants listened to several sound samples starting at 8 kHz, up to 20 kHz, the theoretical maximum for the human ear. Naturally, the results vary greatly among participants, but we need to consider some additional details.

Limitations of Online Tests

What do I mean by that? Beyond good intentions, videos are not the ideal way to perform an accurate hearing test. According to available information, YouTube cuts everything above 17 kHz during its compression/conversion process, so if you're young and cannot hear anything above that frequency, don't worry.

A More Reliable Method

The web offers many free tone generators where you can manually input the desired frequency. As always in these situations, any additional questions should be resolved by consulting an otolaryngologist.