What's the highest frequency you can hear?

[raystankewitz]

Well, how about 10 kHz?

Many years of being around USAF fighter jets and the assorted Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE) has killed my high frequency hearing. I played bass mostly in bands so I'm not sure that was the cause. Probably didn't help.

:dontknow:

 

[Cagey]

Very few things as loud as jet take-offs. They're beyond loud - you can feel it in your gut. Even with ear protection, you know there's some serious disruption going on.

 

[Ddbltrbl]

The military tested me at 21K, but I'm down to about 18K these days. Really hate it when someone turns the treble up on an audio device!

 

[Dan025]

Well, how about 10 kHz?

Many years of being around USAF fighter jets and the assorted Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE) has killed my high frequency hearing. I played bass mostly in bands so I'm not sure that was the cause. Probably didn't help.

:dontknow:

Very few things as loud as jet take-offs. They're beyond loud - you can feel it in your gut. Even with ear protection, you know there's some serious disruption going on.

depends on the jet and how close you are. when i was starioned at seymour johnson AFB they had about 94 f-15Es. the intake hiss on the ground on those was deafening on the flight line but the takeoff was pretty gentle... in contrast when i was at misawa japan they had around 40 f16s and the JSADF had mitsubishi f-2s the f2 is a carbon copy of the f-16, not just a similar design like the f-86 was to the mig, no mitsubishi must have worked out a deal with lockheed martin... the difference was that the f-2 got spec'd with a larger engine and radar.

working around the f-15 on the ground over time will do some real damage to your hearing, but as far as pure db goes the f-2 on full afterburner is one hell of a loud noise.

 

[Dan025]

about 17k here, but i question the ability of my setup to reproduce higher frequencies. i have my sound card running into a chinese amplifier that has a tube preamp. it had a dock to run an ipod and i think the rationale was that it would make digital music sound less digital.

 

[Cagey]

about 17k here, but i question the ability of my setup to reproduce higher frequencies.

I've wondered about that, too. Your typical 1x12, 2x12, 4x12 bottom is full of 12" speakers, right? They don't reproduce those frequencies. It's physically impossible. But, if you have a modeller, you need a FR/FR unit to make it sound right. What's up with that?

 

[mayfly]

Well, how about 10 kHz?

Many years of being around USAF fighter jets and the assorted Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE) has killed my high frequency hearing. I played bass mostly in bands so I'm not sure that was the cause. Probably didn't help.

:dontknow:

You're making me feel better.  I did the test with my kids and the oldest can hear at about 20K.  My wife at 14K.  I'm still at 13K.

We better look after what we have left!

 

[raystankewitz]

Well, how about 10 kHz?

Many years of being around USAF fighter jets and the assorted Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE) has killed my high frequency hearing. I played bass mostly in bands so I'm not sure that was the cause. Probably didn't help.

:dontknow:

You're making me feel better.  I did the test with my kids and the oldest can hear at about 20K.  My wife at 14K.  I'm still at 13K.

We better look after what we have left!

The particular bird that did the most damage was the infamous "Bent Wing Bug Sucker", the McDonnell-Douglas F-4D Phantom II. I was a WCS Gorilla on this bird, otherwise known as a Radar technician. Big vacuum tube power supply for it, up to +300 VDC biased by -350 VDC.

The other bird that did some collateral damage was the Republic F-105 Thunderchiefs flown by a Reserve unit from Tinker AFB that participated in the Red Flag exercises at Nellis AFB, Nevada. when they lit up the 'burner on takeoff, it actually hurt my ears, even while wearing ear protection. Their nickname was "Thud", supposedly the sound that it made when the 'burner would light up on takeoff, however most "Thud" pilots that flew in 'Nam would tell you "Thud" was the sound they made when they hit the ground.

Add in the little F-5E, our ever-present T-38 "White Mice", some West German F-104 Starfighters during Red Flag and the Dash-Sixty motor-generators that were needed for ground power, I'm really surprised I can hear at all.

Yeah, wife and daughter are always complaining I turn the television and guitar amps up too loud. Oh Well, hearing aids don't really help and they feed back (bad) when I yawn.

Ray

 

[stratamania]

Mine came in around 13K, not sure if my ears being a bit blocked with wax at the moment makes a difference.

The above was on an iPad with a set of Sony Headphones...

Today, I gave  this a try on a PC with a different set of headphones actually a Headset I use for Skype, and it came to 18K.

 

[swarfrat]

Jet engines have a number of different noise modes. The turbine whine happens to do a lot of damage in the 4khz natural bump we have that's critical for understanding speech, particularly female speech.  There's a running joke in the military about crew chief's being nearly deaf to women's voices, though oddly enough it can be selective in which females are hardest to hear.

 

[Dan025]

Well, how about 10 kHz?

Many years of being around USAF fighter jets and the assorted Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE) has killed my high frequency hearing. I played bass mostly in bands so I'm not sure that was the cause. Probably didn't help.

:dontknow:

You're making me feel better.  I did the test with my kids and the oldest can hear at about 20K.  My wife at 14K.  I'm still at 13K.

We better look after what we have left!

The particular bird that did the most damage was the infamous "Bent Wing Bug Sucker", the McDonnell-Douglas F-4D Phantom II. I was a WCS Gorilla on this bird, otherwise known as a Radar technician. Big vacuum tube power supply for it, up to +300 VDC biased by -350 VDC.

The other bird that did some collateral damage was the Republic F-105 Thunderchiefs flown by a Reserve unit from Tinker AFB that participated in the Red Flag exercises at Nellis AFB, Nevada. when they lit up the 'burner on takeoff, it actually hurt my ears, even while wearing ear protection. Their nickname was "Thud", supposedly the sound that it made when the 'burner would light up on takeoff, however most "Thud" pilots that flew in 'Nam would tell you "Thud" was the sound they made when they hit the ground.

Add in the little F-5E, our ever-present T-38 "White Mice", some West German F-104 Starfighters during Red Flag and the Dash-Sixty motor-generators that were needed for ground power, I'm really surprised I can hear at all.

Yeah, wife and daughter are always complaining I turn the television and guitar amps up too loud. Oh Well, hearing aids don't really help and they feed back (bad) when I yawn.

Ray

the only time i've seen jets like those is at air shows. other than the f-4 that is. the jasdf still fly them. i only brought up the f-2 in my previous post because they were so much louder. i don't know if you guys had "ice FOD duty" back then. but even with double hearing protection the f-2 taking off with full afterburner would put out a sound that i could feel in my bones and the pressure would hurt my ears. we wore foamies in our ears and ear defenders over that. and that was the job for the day, to stand and watch the intake suck up moisture off the ground checking for ice buildup on the edge of the intake. 12 hours of watching jets take off at close proximity during base exercizes.

it's carzy what i remember and what i don't it wasn't all that long ago for me. but is a dash 60 one of those big genorators with a 6-cyl Detroit diesel. it's crazy how old our ground support equipment is. people talk about military spending, but we've been doing up keep on 40yo equipment. a lot of that spending is much needed.

 

[raystankewitz]

Well, how about 10 kHz?

Many years of being around USAF fighter jets and the assorted Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE) has killed my high frequency hearing. I played bass mostly in bands so I'm not sure that was the cause. Probably didn't help.

:dontknow:

You're making me feel better.  I did the test with my kids and the oldest can hear at about 20K.  My wife at 14K.  I'm still at 13K.

We better look after what we have left!

The particular bird that did the most damage was the infamous "Bent Wing Bug Sucker", the McDonnell-Douglas F-4D Phantom II. I was a WCS Gorilla on this bird, otherwise known as a Radar technician. Big vacuum tube power supply for it, up to +300 VDC biased by -350 VDC.

The other bird that did some collateral damage was the Republic F-105 Thunderchiefs flown by a Reserve unit from Tinker AFB that participated in the Red Flag exercises at Nellis AFB, Nevada. when they lit up the 'burner on takeoff, it actually hurt my ears, even while wearing ear protection. Their nickname was "Thud", supposedly the sound that it made when the 'burner would light up on takeoff, however most "Thud" pilots that flew in 'Nam would tell you "Thud" was the sound they made when they hit the ground.

Add in the little F-5E, our ever-present T-38 "White Mice", some West German F-104 Starfighters during Red Flag and the Dash-Sixty motor-generators that were needed for ground power, I'm really surprised I can hear at all.

Yeah, wife and daughter are always complaining I turn the television and guitar amps up too loud. Oh Well, hearing aids don't really help and they feed back (bad) when I yawn.

Ray

the only time i've seen jets like those is at air shows. other than the f-4 that is. the jasdf still fly them. i only brought up the f-2 in my previous post because they were so much louder. i don't know if you guys had "ice FOD duty" back then. but even with double hearing protection the f-2 taking off with full afterburner would put out a sound that i could feel in my bones and the pressure would hurt my ears. we wore foamies in our ears and ear defenders over that. and that was the job for the day, to stand and watch the intake suck up moisture off the ground checking for ice buildup on the edge of the intake. 12 hours of watching jets take off at close proximity during base exercizes.

it's carzy what i remember and what i don't it wasn't all that long ago for me. but is a dash 60 one of those big genorators with a 6-cyl Detroit diesel. it's crazy how old our ground support equipment is. people talk about military spending, but we've been doing up keep on 40yo equipment. a lot of that spending is much needed.

Never had a motor-generator that had a "Green Leaker" powerplant on the bases where I served. Our -60's were powered by a gas turbine and during the startup phase, you had to stand next to it, about three feet from the exhaust plenum. There was a switch (Fuel boost?) that you had to hold up until it reached about 60% rpm. You also had to watch that it didn't overspeed on startup (>100% rpm) so you had to be ready to shut it down.

Here's a video but first, put on your best headphones/earbuds and crank your sound to 100%. It will still not be close but you get the idea.

http://youtu.be/qzPEMUrewQE

We didn't have ice FOD problems at Nellis AFB, Nevada but that was an issue at Keflavik AB, Iceland, home of the 57 FIS and their F-4C Phantom II's. Had the distinction of going TDY there in the late 70's.

I wore earplugs (silicone or foam) and a Mickey Mouse set on top of that. Still, being on the flightline in the morning during Red Flag, I was not that many yards away from the active taxiway and the runways. Some of the jets, such as the F-15's flown by the 57th TTW, had that 'crackle' in the burner that seemed to really cut through all of the hearing protection.

Also, it was a somewhat common thing to have to chain down a jet to the ramp, run both J79-15's up to full burner and then crawl under it to tap on the airframe around the IFF transponder. This was due to the IFF being partially integrated into my radar. The transponder was just ahead of the tailhook pivot so you were just a few feet from the exhaust cones. A true visceral experience that left you partially deaf for a few days afterward.

I'm sure playing music had little effect on my hearing. Most of the damage came from the USAF. A friend suggested I try a different pair of headphones to do the test so I'll try that when I can.

Ray

 

[Dan025]

i wasn't a crew cheif or other regular flightline personnel. i was metal tech, so my flightline duties weren't usually with the jet running, the word dash 60 sound so familiar but as i didn't work with running age (only stuff that needed welding or bad fasteners removed) i get things mixed up. i'm not really sure what used the detroit right now. all i remember is they needed a flexplate for one but they were out of production so we cut one on the cnc.

it was rare to see an f-15 take off with afterburner even though we had so many. plus i was nowhere near the runway. i know they have some serious thrust but they generally didn't make much of a racket over the base. the capabilities of the f-15e were pretty remarkable. i saw a pilot put one into a vertical climb so slow he may as well not have been moving to show off the range of control and the better than 1:1 thrust to weight ratio.

 

[mark1178]

I have conversations with skeeters....if you're not from the south, that's Mosquitos

 

[Jumble Jumble]

F-15s are so lovely.

 

[Steve_Karl]

http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_frequencycheckhigh.php

can I still hear the difference between a 500K and a 250K pot at this point?

That, in my opinion, is about learning and how often you actually challenge your self to focus on the difference.

 

[elfro89]

I'm fairly certain its not the low frequencies that damage your ears, its very loud hi-frequencies that are the culprits.

F 16 is my favourite

 

[drewfx]

I'm fairly certain its not the low frequencies that damage your ears, its very loud hi-frequencies that are the culprits.

Low frequencies are less of a problem because they are attenuated in the middle ear before they reach the inner ear where the damage occurs.