An Audiophile DNA Modification!

[sphinxsix]

I took another look at that histogram and it is not accurate - maybe it is old

 

e.g. elephants are known to communicate down to 12 Hz, not 17

The better for us!

[mansr]

I took another look at that histogram and it is not accurate - maybe it is old

 

e.g. elephants are known to communicate down to 12 Hz, not 17

And humans can usually hear well below 31 Hz.

[sphinxsix]

Never heard that one from Peter Walker. Those originals well set in a room had pretty good response to 50 hz or near enough. Not as lacking as some imagine.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Computer Audiophile mobile app

Found it for you (they say 'attributed' but I heard many years ago he really said it). 6moons audio reviews: Nowe Audio mono3.5

[Ralf11]

Before this degenerates too much, it's worth pointing out that any group of humans (even if the same age and gender) will differ in the freq. range of their hearing.

[Jud]

Before this degenerates too much, it's worth pointing out that any group of humans (even if the same age and gender) will differ in the freq. range of their hearing.

 

As I get quite close to retirement, I get more and more interested in whether there is information (charts, curves?) on average loss of high frequency hearing acuity with age. Two years ago at age 60, at least according to one of those unreliable Internet "Test your hearing!" sites, I could hear up to 16kHz. Wonder what that would show now?

[Ralf11]

your health ins. might pay for an audiologist to test you - that would be more important than the average

 

Listening and Hearing

 

 

I have a notch hearing loss making it hard to understand speech when there is background noise (like at parties) but it is due to near misses from lightning strikes. Unfortunately, it does not prevent me from being able to tell the difference between a cheap stereo and a very expensive system

[esldude]

As I get quite close to retirement, I get more and more interested in whether there is information (charts, curves?) on average loss of high frequency hearing acuity with age. Two years ago at age 60, at least according to one of those unreliable Internet "Test your hearing!" sites, I could hear up to 16kHz. Wonder what that would show now?

It varies even without different environments being taken into account. People with blue eyes and blond hair lose more with age on average. Brown eyes and dark hair less. Green eyes and red hair in between.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[Jud]

It varies even without different environments being taken into account. People with blue eyes and blond hair lose more with age on average. Brown eyes and dark hair less. Green eyes and red hair in between.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Computer Audiophile mobile app

 

 

More relevant for me, what about gray hair?

[rando]

what?

[sphinxsix]

More relevant for me, what about gray hair?

I'm interested in it too. Since I finished 30-35 that's also my favourite hair color

 

After closer consideration I must say I'm very curious what the music would sound like if we had let's say 12Hz - 150kHz hearing range. I'm sure this would be a challenge not only for audio industry but also for inventors of new instruments.. An 'oldschool' orchestras using old, conventional instruments could suddenly start to sound really flat. The new ones using new 'wide range' instruments would be a on the other hand a challenge for the composers of the new era.. The scores could get suddenly much more complex and richer!

[mansr]

I'm interested in it too. Since I finished 30-35 that's also my favourite hair color

 

After closer consideration I must say I'm very curious what the music would sound like if we had let's say 12Hz - 150kHz hearing range. I'm sure this would be a challenge not only for audio industry but also for inventors of new instruments.. An 'oldschool' orchestras using old, conventional instruments could suddenly start to sound really flat. The new ones using new 'wide range' instruments would be a on the other hand a challenge for the composers of the new era.. The scores could get suddenly much more complex and richer!

We'd need to engineer people with four arms to play these new instruments.

[sphinxsix]

We'd need to engineer people with four arms to play these new instruments.

Do you think four would be enough.?

 

Anyway conductors would probably need more than eight

 

How about 5 ears for audiophiles.? (plus one for low frequencies) Wouldn't that make surround sound.. well more ..surround.?

[mansr]

Do you think four would be enough.?

If they're really long and each have eight fingers.

[esldude]

Do you think four would be enough.?

 

Anyway conductors would probably need more than eight

 

How about 5 ears for audiophiles.? (plus one for low frequencies) Wouldn't that make surround sound.. well more ..surround.?

 

It only gets worse. With that approach we have immersive 3D sound. 11 ears minimum. One being the God ear smack dab on top of the cranium.

[sphinxsix]

@mansr It's still a minimalist approach IMO

 

Yep. 5.1 ears for the surround fans and JUST 2 but really huge (imaging and ambience!) for 2ch guys, me included!

[sphinxsix]

It only gets worse. With that approach we have immersive 3D sound. 11 ears minimum. One being the God ear smack dab on top of the cranium.

+11

[mansr]

@mansr It's still a minimalist approach IMO

 

I like minimalist music.

[sphinxsix]

I like minimalist music.

Me too. From time to time.

[Middy]

Star trek fans have a final front ear

 

Sent from my SM-G900F using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[sdolezalek]

What if it wasn't about the ability to hear "off-the-charts" frequencies at all? Particularly since so little music lives there. What if it was about how well you hear microgradations between 20Hz and 20kHz?

 

I used to think I was colorblind because I had trouble with those red/green dot tests they have you look at. More recently I discovered the complete opposite is true. I'm extremely sensitive to tiny variations in color. Try the following test for yourself: Hue Test; X-Rite

 

I scored a 2 (on a range from 0 to 124 with a higher score being less ability to distinguish color gradations), which for a past middle-aged man was more than surprising. But it opened my eyes to our willingness to oversimplify what we are testing for and, in audio, we may be giving far too much credit to breadth of frequencies heard.

[Middy]

0 just getting the wife to try..... She should be good at the 50 shades of grey scale..... ah she got 0 as well..

 

Sent from my SM-G900F using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[mansr]

What if it wasn't about the ability to hear "off-the-charts" frequencies at all? Particularly since so little music lives there. What if it was about how well you hear microgradations between 20Hz and 20kHz?

 

I used to think I was colorblind because I had trouble with those red/green dot tests they have you look at. More recently I discovered the complete opposite is true. I'm extremely sensitive to tiny variations in color. Try the following test for yourself: Hue Test; X-Rite

 

I scored a 2 (on a range from 0 to 124 with a higher score being less ability to distinguish color gradations), which for a past middle-aged man was more than surprising. But it opened my eyes to our willingness to oversimplify what we are testing for and, in audio, we may be giving far too much credit to breadth of frequencies heard.

I scored zero. Bear in mind that for the results to be comparable, you need to use a colour-calibrated monitor. An uncalibrated monitor could skew the result in either direction.

[sphinxsix]

What if it wasn't about the ability to hear "off-the-charts" frequencies at all? Particularly since so little music lives there.

We think so only because our hearing range is so limited!

 

As for colors - I'm for a DNA modification too! For home cinema fans. Me included.

 

BTW nothing IMO destroys good sight more effectively than long computer sessions. CA ones included. Unfortunately. But.. I noticed long time ago that when I do some photoshopping right after it my sight improves beyond belief for a period of time. The same goes in my experience for sound quality comparisons. The more regularly I do it the easier it is to notice the sound differences, the 'bigger' and more obvious they are. Someone else noticed that.?

[esldude]

What if it wasn't about the ability to hear "off-the-charts" frequencies at all? Particularly since so little music lives there. What if it was about how well you hear microgradations between 20Hz and 20kHz?

 

I used to think I was colorblind because I had trouble with those red/green dot tests they have you look at. More recently I discovered the complete opposite is true. I'm extremely sensitive to tiny variations in color. Try the following test for yourself: Hue Test; X-Rite

 

I scored a 2 (on a range from 0 to 124 with a higher score being less ability to distinguish color gradations), which for a past middle-aged man was more than surprising. But it opened my eyes to our willingness to oversimplify what we are testing for and, in audio, we may be giving far too much credit to breadth of frequencies heard.

 

Scored a 2 with my phone.

 

Scored a 0 with my Dell Ultrasharp calibrated monitor.

 

I guess we could do an audio version on frequency discrimination. Of course the eyes only respond to about 8/10's of one octave range. Say the same as 3000 hz to 5370 hz. Pitch discrimination there is reported as .3 to .5% at those frequencies.

[sdolezalek]

Does a similar test exist for sound? For example arrange the following 20 sounds in order of increasing pitch, order this next 20 in order of steepness of attack, etc.???