Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
Steve vs. Alan on Hearing High Stuff
I can hear up to 17.1kHz. Steve can only hear up to 14.7kHz. So I win this round. Although maybe that means he can save more disc space and compress his MP3s a little more?
If you want to perform your own test, you can use Python on Windows as follows:
from winsound import Beep
Beep(14000, 1000)
14000 is the frequency 14kHz and 1000 is beep duration 1000ms (1 second). Crank up the frequency until you can’t hear it.
Update: alternate MATLAB one-liner for doing the same:
f=15000;fs=44100;sound(sin(f*2*pi*[0:fs-1]/fs),fs)
Update 2: Paul says he can hear up to 16.9kHz well but also claims to faintly hear 18-20kHz. I think that means he wins, because I cannot hear above 17.1kHz at all. He said he used headphones whereas I used crappy laptop speakers, so I consider that cheating a little.
Update 3: So apparently, the results are very dependent on the speakers being used. I tested Amanda at home using the Bose speakers and she can hear up to 17.5kHz. Funny thing: with these speakers, I can hear up to about 18.4kHz. Not sure what to make of that except that I’m winning again.
