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[Martian]

For years the old lady has sworn that I'm just an ignorant klafte who will only listen when he wants to, whereas I've always maintained that I'm entitled to be a bit mutton now that I'm in the "middle" years of life.

After the test results below, I'm thinking she may be right after all 

 


For anybody remotely interested, the following hardware was used:

Samsung Galaxy SII
Beyerdynamic DTX60 Phones (in ear bud)

The handset has been modded to increase the pitiful volume limits imposed on us by the nanny state, although this makes no odds to the end result as the volume levels are controlled by the test itself. There is no "cheating" the test by saying you heard every tone either, as it doesn't always play a test tone 
I also conducted a second test to verify the test frequencies for accuracy, and they are bang on the money according to Adobe Audition.

In conclusion, I have either:

a) Been a very lucky boy in that at least one part of me still works as well now as it did on day one (it's about the only part left that does  )

or

b) My parents spent years lying to me about the dangers of loud music at close quarters   

[Kevin Wood]

Hmm. Not bad. Does make me wonder if the speaker in a phone is up to the job though.

EDIT: Spotted the in-ear buds now.

I know for a fact that mine struggles above about 15KHz these days. Still, Mustn't grumble. My Dad is something like 60db down by 2KHz and it continues to roll off rapidly thereafter.

[jtypecav]

I had a hearing test a few years ago when my tinitus started in my left ear (at 24 years old) they did the test and I failed massively, but they changed from a tone to white noise and ran the test again and they said that my actually hearing mechanics were AOK, spot on in fact at the time, but that my tinitus was masking the sound due to some lovely blood vessels causing my inner ear to vibrate. Now 9 years on and I have it at a different tone in my right ear constantly too I am starting to struggle to hear more softly spoken people in meeting etc.. time for one of those ear-trumpets! Will have to try one of these droid apps out!

[Martian]

Hmm. Not bad. Does make me wonder if the speaker in a phone is up to the job though.

I know for a fact that mine struggles above about 15KHz these days. Still, Mustn't grumble. My Dad is something like 60db down by 2KHz and it continues to roll off rapidly thereafter.

While there are some small & lightweight docks about that have semi decent speakers in them (for their physical size), I have yet to come across a handset that has an acceptable speaker in it...although I'm sure that will change in a year or so.

I also did a test using the standard Samsung supplied headphones, and they are truly effing abysmal by comparison to the Beyers both for sound quality & volume levels. Obviously I wasn't expecting the Sammy offering to realistically compete with the Beyers, but I didn't expect the Sammy offering to be so poor either (especially on such a high end phone).

I had a hearing test a few years ago when my tinitus started in my left ear

I had my first proper experience of that just after I got the phone, and boy is it annoying.
It seems that setting the volume level to 100 in the engineers menu (standard is 85), combined with a blast of the bagpipe solo in AC/DC's "It's A Long Way To The Top" is enough to trigger a tinnitus session that will last a good week or so afterwards 

[MaxV6]

loud music does indeed irreparably damage hearing.  your parents were not lying.... 

however the test conditions are a little misleading,  thanks to the direct connection linkage between earbuds and the ear canal..

making for a much more efficient transfer of energy .  it's almost a direct link from the transducer in the earbud, to the bones in your ear...   there is at least a partial linkage for sound to flank the atmospheric transfer to ear drum....   which will have an effect on the end result... artificially enhancing the high frequency result.

sorry.....

you want to know the truth about your hearing, go see an audiologist.  ( a proper one, not a bloody hearing aid shop rip off merchant)

if you have any concerns your GP ought to be able to refer you to the ENT department for an audiogram.

[MaxV6]

oh, and sealing in the ear with buds..  changes the acoustic impedance matching between source and receiver...

[jtypecav]

Ouch bagpipes!! I bet. TBH it was driving me insane and you kind of learn to live with it, it's like hearing the machine that is your biology running. I had the whole ENT and then the radioactive trace put in and the MRI to check it wasn't a tumour as they were surprised I got it so young - plus had (until then anyway) looked after it. I distinctly remember my ability to perceive high end frequencies was erratic depending on what tones of tinitus I was having that day. Low end was rock solid though. App is fun (coming from a childhood when I could hear a TV on from hundreds of metres away) to loosing that perception as we inevitably loose it to some degree. I'm glad that I was able to start to compose again despite it upsetting the cart at first!

[Martian]

sorry.....

No need to apologise Max, I had my reservations as well when I saw the results (at least the high end anyway).
I'm quite sure that if I were to get my hands on a proper pair of test headphones I would also struggle to get much above 15K these days in a "real world" scenario.

if you have any concerns your GP ought to be able to refer you to the ENT department for an audiogram.

No concerns at all Max, I was 20/20 on my last service 3 months ago.

oh, and sealing in the ear with buds..  changes the acoustic impedance matching between source and receiver...

You forgot the electrical impedance, sensitivity, and a whole host of other things that can change the audio en route 

[MaxV6]

on a side note, earbuds can be bloody dangerous,  if you put some of them in your ear while wet (after a shower, or being out in the rain)  a seal can form around the edge....    and hey presto, when you remove them, one burst ear drum,.


they NEVER go anywhere near my ears !!!!   


(those of you who need to listen on headphones, should get some decent ones....   AKG 702 are my favourite remotely sensibly priced jobbies   ( a set of stax ear speakers is my wet dream audio geek ambition.... a mate has some and they're stunning....    , but the 702's are as close as you'll find for under a couple of grand)

the sennheiser HD600's and upwards are also very good....  but i prefer the AKG.


that said,  for mp3/phone listening,  Sennheiser PX200's are pretty good,  better than the mp3 format or amps in the mobile devices deserve anyway....

[MaxV6]

You forgot the electrical impedance, sensitivity, and a whole host of other things that can change the audio en route 

no, i didn't    i just didn't feel them relevant ,  it appeared the test was "designed" to assess the performance of the ear ,  rather than the replay system,   thus , how the replay system interacts with the listener is rather more important, when "short circuited" like that....   

, my apologies , i let my inner anorak out for a bit....   but he's been getting a bit rampant on here this week     i should probably chain him down for a while... 

( to a large extent , my hearing is my living..... thus the anoraky pedantry )

[ozzycat]

dose this make your phone easer to hear it ring or am i barking up the wrong tree

[Martian]

dose this make your phone easer to hear it ring or am i barking up the wrong tree

That will be down to a combination of the ringtone, the audio properties of that tone, and the ringer volume setting of the handset itself.

[ozzycat]

  youve lost me now