Gandhi
2013-08-21 09:28:38 UTC
Being an audiophile (and ex audiophool) owning high-performing audio
devices, I decided to have a professional hearing test done to see to
what degree I rather have OCD. Or actually, the deciding factor was more
likely that it was free of charge. :-)
The test consisted of three parts:
1) pure-tone audiometry using air conduction at 125-8000 Hz
2) pure-tone audiometry using bone conduction at 250-4000 Hz
3) pure-tone audiometry using bone conduction at 250-4000 Hz, with a
masking (white or pink?) noise in the other ear using air conduction.
The result was that my hearing was completely normal. Nevertheless I was
very surprised by the difference between the ears. According to the
audiologist, the interval that is considered normal is up to 20 dB.
Also, what is considered normal in absolute terms seems to be up to 25
dB hearing loss. (See for instance
http://www.healthyhearing.com/content/faqs/Hearing-loss/Test/41775-Degrees-of-hearing-loss.)
Interestingly enough, the audiologist said that they never test
frequencies over 8 kHz, as the ear is too easily damaged. (Remember that
on average one can only hear 20 kHz at the threshold of pain. And yes,
that's how to correctly interpret the Fletcher-Munson curves.)
Another dimension would of course be how trained the brain is to
interpret the sounds. I used to play the violin and the piano for many
years and also sang in choirs. Therefore, I'd like to think that these
activities trained my brain quite a bit. My sister, who is a talanted
musician, has significantly better hearing than me when it comes to
hearing what's going on in a symphony orchestra, but as life is not long
enough we have made no formal tests to prove that. I hope I'm at least
better than average, but maybe it's too long ago and therefore just
wishful thinking. Anyway, I don't know any way of testing this in an
objective way.
My conclusion is that it's good that I stopped obsessing about equipment
a number of years ago and instead concentrated my OCD on room
correction. Maybe I should even stop paying attention to everything but
the music itself? (On the other hand, I really can't stand listening to
a lousy system and I immensely enjoy listning to a good system, so that
would be a huge challenge.)
Best Regards,
Gandhi
not often enough well recorded and mastered cds *|* dbpoweramp with
accuraterip *|* flac *|* fanless asrock z77e-itx intel i5-3570t *|*
ubuntu 12.04.1 lts 32-bit *|* lms 7.7.3 *|* brutefirdrc 3.0 *|*
transporter (balanced out) *|* thule ia252b *|* audio physic scorpio *|*
no fancy cables. *+* also some booms. *+* harmony 525s for them all,
including waking the server from s3.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gandhi's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58909
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=99442
devices, I decided to have a professional hearing test done to see to
what degree I rather have OCD. Or actually, the deciding factor was more
likely that it was free of charge. :-)
The test consisted of three parts:
1) pure-tone audiometry using air conduction at 125-8000 Hz
2) pure-tone audiometry using bone conduction at 250-4000 Hz
3) pure-tone audiometry using bone conduction at 250-4000 Hz, with a
masking (white or pink?) noise in the other ear using air conduction.
The result was that my hearing was completely normal. Nevertheless I was
very surprised by the difference between the ears. According to the
audiologist, the interval that is considered normal is up to 20 dB.
Also, what is considered normal in absolute terms seems to be up to 25
dB hearing loss. (See for instance
http://www.healthyhearing.com/content/faqs/Hearing-loss/Test/41775-Degrees-of-hearing-loss.)
Interestingly enough, the audiologist said that they never test
frequencies over 8 kHz, as the ear is too easily damaged. (Remember that
on average one can only hear 20 kHz at the threshold of pain. And yes,
that's how to correctly interpret the Fletcher-Munson curves.)
Another dimension would of course be how trained the brain is to
interpret the sounds. I used to play the violin and the piano for many
years and also sang in choirs. Therefore, I'd like to think that these
activities trained my brain quite a bit. My sister, who is a talanted
musician, has significantly better hearing than me when it comes to
hearing what's going on in a symphony orchestra, but as life is not long
enough we have made no formal tests to prove that. I hope I'm at least
better than average, but maybe it's too long ago and therefore just
wishful thinking. Anyway, I don't know any way of testing this in an
objective way.
My conclusion is that it's good that I stopped obsessing about equipment
a number of years ago and instead concentrated my OCD on room
correction. Maybe I should even stop paying attention to everything but
the music itself? (On the other hand, I really can't stand listening to
a lousy system and I immensely enjoy listning to a good system, so that
would be a huge challenge.)
Best Regards,
Gandhi
not often enough well recorded and mastered cds *|* dbpoweramp with
accuraterip *|* flac *|* fanless asrock z77e-itx intel i5-3570t *|*
ubuntu 12.04.1 lts 32-bit *|* lms 7.7.3 *|* brutefirdrc 3.0 *|*
transporter (balanced out) *|* thule ia252b *|* audio physic scorpio *|*
no fancy cables. *+* also some booms. *+* harmony 525s for them all,
including waking the server from s3.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gandhi's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58909
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=99442