How's your hearing

[BobM]

Here's a little pitch perception test for you

http://www.tonometric.com/adaptivepitch/

[Bob in St. Louis]

Well...... I don't understand the results. Maybe I'm an idiot. After two beers and a glass of red, here's what I got. When I see "Hz", I think of frequency. But pitch must be an animal of a different color. Not sure how Hz relates, but there seems to be a "graphable" chart of my perception that starts off great and steadily gets worse.
Not sure if I should be impressed, or embarrassed.

How'd I do?

 

[richidoo]

Hi Bob!!!! 
They forgot the k for kiloHertz, that's how you can tell they are experts. You are right, pitch means frequency, even for the tipsy. 

It's interesting that the chart says that we're most sensitive to 4kHz. That is the heart of the presence range, where picky audiophiles obsess and amp designers make their fortunes. There lies the survival sounds of rustling leaves, tinkling water, hissing animals, and crying babies piercing sound. It is long enough to travel distance, and short enough to allow easy direction location. 

[tmazz]

Of course one of the problems of a test such as this is the fact that most people taking it are using cheap cr@ppy computer speakers and the source of the test tones. So not only are you testing the sensitivity of your hearing, but also the limited resolving power of a cheap pair of speakers.

[chrisa]

cool test. My perception score was .35625 Hz.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Ok, I guess I still don't understand. I've had two cups of coffee and still don't get it.
What's a good score and what's a bad score? 

Bob

[StereoNut]

Speak up, you guys... I can't hear you!

 

[BobM]

Bob - based on your score, or the fact that you scored in the <blank> percentile I would say that you should sell your stereo and get a hearing aid. With a score like that, not only are you tone deaf but you are a danger to your family and your pets. At least the crickets in your backyard are safe from you ever discovering that they are there and making noise.  

But seriously, the bell curve on the graph would suggest that most of us would fall into the peak parts around 2-3 KHz. I took the test with a pair of headphones on my work laptop, which has a crappy soundcard in it, and scored in that range (3Hz, 42nd percentile). Try it again with headphones and you should do better, otherwise I guess we'll see you posting some bargains in the classifieds.  

[richidoo]

I think it says you are above normal hearing below 6kHz, changing to below normal somewhere between 6-12kHz. Never believe anything you read on the internet. 

[stereofool]

Eh????

[richidoo]

Eh????

WELCOME BACK STEVE!!!   
                                     

[Bob in St. Louis]

Bob - based on your score, ..........bla......bla.......bla.......bla......bla......

Bob, you can bite me. 

I think it says you are above normal hearing below 6kHz, changing to below normal somewhere between 6-12kHz. Never believe anything you read on the internet. 

Ok, thanks Rich. I can always count on you to shoot straight. haha
I guess that's why I have six 15" drivers that are responsible for frequencies below 80Hz. 

Seriously, I wouldn't mind having a professional hearing test done, just to see if "what I'm hearing" is "what I'm hearing".

Bob

[allenzachary]

When I was a kid, I could hear thing as high as 30khz very loudly (I was a medical journal kid). When I went into stores, the motion detector alarms would be horribly painful and adults would rarely pay any attention to me because they couldn't hear what was hurting me.  Fortunately, my father was an audiologist and understood my issue.  That was before he ran away and joined the circus, but that' another story.

When I walked through my neighborhood in the early evening, I could tell which houses were watching TV because the flyback transformers emitted a very loud (to me) shrill tone around 20K.  Different flybacks produced different frequencies and I even knew which houses had more than one television (gasp!).  Of course, I had no idea what a flyback transformer was at that time.  All I knew was that TVs made a nasty sound when they were on.

My 15 year old daughter came to me yesterday to test her "school ring" the high pitched tone that kids use on their cell phones so teachers won't hear them ring.  She handed me the phone and said "Can you hear this?"  Nothing.  *sigh*

My super human hearing has been replaced by Tinniitis. 

[BobM]

As I understand the test, they first start out comparing 2 tones that are largely different. Meaning more than 16Hz apart from one another, which is pretty easy to pick out. Then they shrink the margin between them, which makes it harder and harder to pick out the tonal difference. If you score to the left of the bell curve it means you can hear and pick out large tonal differences, but not smaller ones. If you score to the right end of the bell curve you probably have near perfect pitch (this is fairly rare) or well trained relative pitch (which many active musicians have developed over time, therefore the follow up question about years of music training).

[tmazz]

Bob - based on your score, ..........bla......bla.......bla.......bla......bla......

Bob, you can bite me. 

I think it says you are above normal hearing below 6kHz, changing to below normal somewhere between 6-12kHz. Never believe anything you read on the internet. 

Ok, thanks Rich. I can always count on you to shoot straight. haha
I guess that's why I have six 15" drivers that are responsible for frequencies below 80Hz. 

Seriously, I wouldn't mind having a professional hearing test done, just to see if "what I'm hearing" is "what I'm hearing".

Bob

Bob, when you think about it the goal of a high end system is to reproduce what you would experience at a live concert. The effect of your particular hearing would really cancel out if what you hear at home is the same as what you hear live. I believe that the differences in peoples system taste have a lot to do with each persons hearing. There are many different facets of musical sound (frequency response {tonality}, space perception {width & height} etc.) Not only do people vary as to their sensitivity to these various facets, but equipment also varies in its ability to deal with them. For a critical listener (audiophile)  the best match will come when they can find equipment (or a system) that performs particularly well win the areas that their own hearing is particularly sensitive.

Your hearing is the only thing in the audio chain that you cannot change, so don't stress over how good or bad it is and just build around it.