We got a lot of positive feedback on our "Can You Hear Like a Teenager? " article, and it inspired us to take it just a little bit further.
Here is a list of tones that go from 8Hz all the way up to 22,000Hz. It’s fairly common for people who are over 25 years of age to not be able to hear above 15kHz, so this will help you find out where your high frequency hearing cuts off.
Musicians have a much higher risk of hearing loss that most people do, and many of us don’t really wear proper hearing protection. Even just listening to an iPod for an extended period of time can permanently damage your hearing. We also gradually lose our high-frequency hearing as we age.
Take our unscientific hearing test: listen to each of these tones and let us know where your hearing cuts out:
| 8 kHz
10 kHz
12 kHz
14 kHz
15 kHz
16 kHz
|
17 kHz
18 kHz
19 kHz
20 kHz
21 kHz
22 kHz
|
If you’re around loud music a lot like I am, or if you are experiencing some hearing loss, I highly recommend getting a pair of these. They don’t muffle the sound like conventional earplugs – they basically give you the same frequency response as without, but with a bit lower volume. If I wear them out to a club, they also help me carry on a conversation without yelling. Etymotic also makes some cool earbuds that isolate your ear so you don’t have to turn up the volume as much on your mp3 player (ambient noise is one of the biggest reasons we turn up the volume). I love mine.
