[grraznazn]

I recently got a pair of 3.5mm to RCA cables that weren't labelled left or right, and I decided to use a "headphone test" video to double check. In the video there was also a frequency response portion, and I noticed that I am unable to hear anything past ~15,000hz.

I know this is in line with my age, but I expected the tone to get gradually quieter as I approach the limits of my hearing. It seems to abruptly drop off at 15khz, but that could also be due to the rate at which the frequency is increasing.

I was hoping some of the younger members here could help me with a sanity check. Can someone verify if the the videos in the links provided are actually making a tone past 15khz?

https://decibelhearing.com/hearing-loss-overview/high-frequency-hearing-loss/

 

[piakoB]

The audio seems to cut off after 15k at least for me

 

[earmonger]

YouTube isn't hi-fi. There may be a cutoff after 15K. Listen to some of the files at audiocheck.net.

 

[grraznazn]

I know youtube isn't hi-fi, but per google their videos are encoded at 44.1khz. In theory, doesn't that mean that it should be able to produce tones up to 22khz if it's in the digital file?

I did come across audiocheck.net, but the tone cutoff was even more abrupt, and I found that sus. But if that is a trusted site, then I guess it can be confirmed that I have lost some hearing in the upper end, and that I'm getting old.

It's only natural.

 

[VNandor]

Hi,

The videos from decibelhearing definitely do not cut off at 15kHz. I can hear both the 15k and 17kHz tones. I also captured the output of my soundcard to verify that the signal is not getting cut off. Something I noticed is that the 8kHz tone sounds much louder than the 15kHz and 17kHz tone. While this is actually quite normal due to how our hearing works, there's a bit more going on. From the captured output I can tell that the 15kHz and 17kHz signals are both about 14dB lower than the 8kHz one. So while they aren't being completely cut off by youtube, they are being attenuated quite a bit.

I know youtube isn't hi-fi, but per google their videos are encoded at 44.1khz. In theory, doesn't that mean that it should be able to produce tones up to 22khz if it's in the digital file?

The attenuation is caused by the lossy codec that youtube is using so it takes up less space. The compression attenuates and removes some of the higher frequencies (along with some other processing as well). You can check the codec used for compression by right-clicking the video and selecting "stats for nerds". The videos you linked use the opus codec. It has been the default codec used by youtube for a while now, I think pretty much every youtube video uses this one. Something to take note of is that opus does not support 44.1kHz sampling rate, it only supports 48kHz and a few other sampling rates that divides evenly to it. So if someone uploads audio with a 44.1kHz sampling rate that gets compressed by opus, the audio will get resampled to 48kHz before it gets compressed.

 

[Thomasr]

You can always download a free function generator app for your phone, then play around with precise frequencies in both your left and right ears.

 

[earmonger]

Can you suggest an Android function generator that's accurate?

 

[Claypole]

I know humans are meant to be able to hear up to 20kHz, but as we get older, this number goes down. Unless you’re quite young, I think a maximum of 14-15kHz is quite normal.

 

[WILLJS]

YouTube isn't hi-fi. There may be a cutoff after 15K. Listen to some of the files at audiocheck.net.

true, youtube cuts off at 15kz, audiocheck.net is a great resource

 

[Thomasr]

Can you suggest an Android function generator that's accurate?

I use this one:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keuwl.functiongenerator

Seems pretty good at what it does, but I didn't do a ton of research so it may not be the "best" option out there.