Nobody is Listening to the Modern Hearing Problem

[ToSeek]

Nobody is Listening to the Modern Hearing Problem

All this is fun and games, but no one seems to be concerned about the health issue this has revealed. There is natural age-related hearing loss, called presbycusis. And then there's unnatural, accelerated hearing loss from noise. Most 30-year-olds should be able to hear a 17-kilohertz sound. This is the case in quiet societies in remote regions such as Nepal and parts of Africa. The fact that many of us cannot hear the Mosquito is a result of an epidemic of noise-induced hearing loss, not just aging.

I can't hear the tone, though somehow it manages to set my nerves on edge, anyway.

[NEOWatcher]

...I can't hear the tone, though somehow it manages to set my nerves on edge, anyway.

I can hear the mosquito, but only at higher volumes. Not incredibly loud, but as loud as I will listen to my music. Judging from the information, that's pretty good for a 43 yr old.
The other pure tones I wasn't able to hear.
But; like you, they all did have a small effect, similar to my whole head tightening up somehow.

[Nowhere Man]

Like NEOWatcher, I can hear the Mosquito, but only with the headphone volume jacked all the way up. It seemed very faint. The other tones were dead silence to me. Maybe a slight headache effect after listening to them. I wonder if my earphones have the dynamic range to play them. I'd need a bat detector to be sure.

I'm 45.5. My eyes are going, my ears are going, what's next?

On the other hand, stuff like jingling keys and forks hitting plates just right make my eardrums pulse.

Fred

[Van Rijn]

Doing better than most here, apparently. I can hear the ringtone easily. To test it, I set it up to repeat, dropped the volume low and walked 15 feet from the computer - still obvious.

I didn't do as well on the other tones. I can hear the 15,102, 16,000 and 16961 tones - just. I have to crank up the volume and they aren't as obvious, especially the 16,961 frequency which is at the absolute edge of detection.

I can't pick up the 17,959 at all.

I think it helps that I've never liked cranking the volume up all the way, I use ear protection using a saw or other loud equipment and I've even been known to take earplugs to a band or theater occasionally. Sometimes it is just so loud it hurts.

[Kelfazin]

Well I'm 30 and I have zero difficulty hearing the Mosquito. I can hear the 15102Hz easily, I can hear the 16000 Hz faintly, I can barely make out the 16961 Hz with my over-ear headphones turned all the way up, and I cannot hear the 17959 Hz at all, even with full volume and big headphones.

But I also spent about 10 years working in an aircraft hangar and then a tool and die shop. I have to have some kind of white noise in my room while I sleep or my tinnitus keeps me awake. It's mild enough that it's doesn't affect my day to day life and a simple fan in the bedroom drowns it out. But when I'm out in the silent desert with my telescope the tinnitus is deafening.

[snarkophilus]

Ick. What an awful noise.

I could hear all of the tones quite easily, even with a very noisy and completely exposed to the air computer running beside me. Of course, I'm only 25, so maybe that's not surprising.

The noise given off by my TV when it is muted is half-way between the mosquito and the 18 kHz sound, I think. I can usually hear that in the next room (and it's partly why I don't watch much TV -- I find it loud, even when the volume isn't turned up). Perhaps televisions are part of the problem with high-frequency hearing loss. I also hear a slightly lower, maybe 16 kHz whine from my computer fan (in addition to the rest of the sound).

[Jim]

I'm 45.5. My eyes are going, my ears are going, what's next?

Your bladder. Just like your eyes and ears, it starts going... and going, and going, and...

[Van Rijn]

I could hear all of the tones quite easily, even with a very noisy and completely exposed to the air computer running beside me. Of course, I'm only 25, so maybe that's not surprising.

Yup, you have a serious age advantage. Of course, some at your age have already blown their hearing.

The noise given off by my TV when it is muted is half-way between the mosquito and the 18 kHz sound, I think. I can usually hear that in the next room (and it's partly why I don't watch much TV -- I find it loud, even when the volume isn't turned up).

Assuming this is a conventional TV, that's probably the flyback transformer, at about 15 Khz. Some are worse than others. I can sometimes hear it, but only just.

[Frog march]

I heard a bat onces when I was a teenager; I heard a high pitched sound and then I saw the thing flying around our tents by the seaside(miles from any technology that could make a sound like that).

[PhantomWolf]

I've been telling people to start investing in Hearing Aid companies for years. The loud music that kids listen too, and now i-pods. Trust me, you can't go wrong.

[Gillianren]

Just ask Pete Townshend. (He'll say, "What? Can you speak up?")

[Celestial Mechanic]

Nobody is listening to the modern hearing problem.

What?

Nobody is listening to the modern hearing problem.

What?

Nobody is listening to the modern hearing problem!

What?

Nobody is listening to the modern hearing problem!

What?

Nobody is listening to the modern hearing problem!!

What?

Nobody is listening to the modern hearing problem!!!

Well, that's my cheap laugh for the day. National Lampoon's "Banana Issue" from the fall of 1973 has been a bad influence on me to this very day!

[cjl]

I can hear all of them. I also have a sound generating program on my comp, and can hear up to between 20 and 21kHz

We'll see how that changes in 20 years...

[Nowhere Man]

Pretty much the same results at home, with cheapo unpowered desktop speakers. I could hear the Mosquito tone, but not the first two pure tones (I didn't bother with the other two). The Mosquito was just over the lower edge of audibility, and gave me gooseflesh before it was done.

Fred

[ToSeek]

If you're going to report your experience, it would be helpful to mention your age. That way us old fogies don't feel as bad (at least not until someone who's 50 reports they can still hear it).

[01101001]

If you're going to report your experience, it would be helpful to mention your age. That way us old fogies don't feel as bad (at least not until someone who's 50 reports they can still hear it).

OK. You can feel bad now.

I treated my ears well. I didn't really get into music until after college and I could afford a good sound system. By then I was edumacated enough not abuse my cilia.

[HenrikOlsen]

If you're going to report your experience, it would be helpful to mention your age. That way us old fogies don't feel as bad (at least not until someone who's 50 reports they can still hear it).

I'm only 40 and I had no trouble with any of them.

[turbo-1]

If you're going to report your experience, it would be helpful to mention your age. That way us old fogies don't feel as bad (at least not until someone who's 50 reports they can still hear it).

I'm 54 and I can hear the mosquito loud and clear with my PC speakers at a moderate volume. It really sets my teeth on edge, too. Nasty. By the way, I played guitar in rock and blues bands until several years ago, worked in very loud environments (paper machines, etc), and I like target shooting. I always wore ear protection for the shooting and at work, though.

I have always had good high-frequency hearing, and when I was younger there was a local bank, and a convenience store/sandwich shop that I couldn't bear to stay in - I think they had ultrasonic motion detectors as part of their alarm systems. When we moved into this house last year, I kept hearing an annoying high-pitched buzz and after looking a bit, I found two ultrasonic pest repellers plugged in - one in the garage and one in the cellar.

[Dragon Star]

I'm 17, and 17579.00 Khz Sine is my limit with crapy HP speakers made in 98'.

I am in pain now...

[mattweather]

I dunno about my but i have hearing aids thats all. I am hearing impaired. Up to 80 hearing level which is 80 below normal hearing people's level. Which that is not bad.

[ToSeek]

I couldn't hear it on the PC here at the office, but it has a horrible sound system. I'll have to try it at home.

[cjl]

I'm 16, and as I said, I'm good through just over 20kHz.

[Dragon Star]

ROFL! Sorry about my previous post, that is in Hz, not KHz.

I'm 16, and as I said, I'm good through just over 20kHz.

That's amazing. I actually had a setting mistake on mine, at actually topped out at exactly 17.6 KHz for Sine.

I haven't tried the others.

[cjl]

I had to switch to my dad's speakers at 18.5kHz (my comp speakers gave out there), and I had to strain to hear 20.5, couldn't hear 21. Easily can hear through 19, then I start to have a little trouble.

Don't worry, I'll loose my hearing soon enough...

[Dragon Star]

I can probably get a lot more without these crappy speakers, but I have no audio-out for my Stereo system...

[ToSeek]

I'm 47, and I can't hear any of them, though my cat was fascinated. And I thought I'd taken pretty good care of my ears, too.

[Dragon Star]

I believe hearing lose can decrease with age even if your not exposed too extremes.

I actually lost about 60% of my hearing in my left ear after it popped and never unpopped after going over a large mountain in WV. And it hurt for weeks. It took about 8 months to get all of my hearing back, and most of it happened within a month's period of time. After it happened I thought it was going to be permanent, which was pretty scary.

[sarongsong]

Nobody is Listening to the Modern Hearing Problem

Meet Evelyn Glennie...Touch the Sound (and IMDb).