OT: Hearing test

[dlsbobby]

Just completed my military hearing test and was suprised by the results. The test checks your sensitivity to 500,1k,2k,3k,4k,6k. The tones start out loud and the volume deminishes at each freq. When I got my print out I was perfect at 2k and was less sensitive as freq increased and as it decreased. Probably pretty normal at my age but it dawned on me that I would probably like a speaker that had a dip around 2k and a slightly rising response. But the next guy with better hearing would probably say that it was hot. So if someone asks my opinion on how some speaker sounds, I would first give him a copy of my hearing test, then give him my opinions. Robert.

[Paul K.]

Re: OT: Hearing test

I strongly recommend you to not intentionally put dips and peaks in your speakers' responses to compensate for deficiencies in your hearing. Why, you ask? Let's say you, and a buddy with perfect hearing, go to a live concert. You both will hear the same program but each will hear it differently due to your different hearing abilities. Assuming that one of your goals as a DIY speaker builder is to capture/reproduce as best as you can the sound of that live performance for both you and your buddy, if you purposely muck with the frequency response of your speakers, neither of you will then hear what you heard live. I'm not saying there might be other reasons, like room acoustics, for intentionally augmenting a speaker's response.
Paul

Just completed my military hearing test and was suprised by the results. The test checks your sensitivity to 500,1k,2k,3k,4k,6k. The tones start out loud and the volume deminishes at each freq. When I got my print out I was perfect at 2k and was less sensitive as freq increased and as it decreased. Probably pretty normal at my age but it dawned on me that I would probably like a speaker that had a dip around 2k and a slightly rising response. But the next guy with better hearing would probably say that it was hot. So if someone asks my opinion on how some speaker sounds, I would first give him a copy of my hearing test, then give him my opinions. Robert.

[dlsbobby]

Re: OT: Hearing test

I strongly recommend you to not intentionally put dips and peaks in your speakers' responses to compensate for deficiencies in your hearing. Why, you ask? Let's say you, and a buddy with perfect hearing, go to a live concert. You both will hear the same program but each will hear it differently due to your different hearing abilities. Assuming that one of your goals as a DIY speaker builder is to capture/reproduce as best as you can the sound of that live performance for both you and your buddy, if you purposely muck with the frequency response of your speakers, neither of you will then hear what you heard live. I'm not saying there might be other reasons, like room acoustics, for intentionally augmenting a speaker's response.
Paul

Right on. Robert.

[john trials]

Re: OT: Hearing test

I'm just curious: Did they correct your results using a Fletcher-Munson curve? Your hearing sensitivity should start to decrease as you get higher and lower in frequency from about 3kHz to 4kHz, where human hearing is the most sensitive.

http://www.webervst.com/fm.htm

[dlsbobby]

Re: OT: Hearing test

I'm just curious: Did they correct your results using a Fletcher-Munson curve? Your hearing sensitivity should start to decrease as you get higher and lower in frequency from about 3kHz to 4kHz, where human hearing is the most sensitive.

http://www.webervst.com/fm.htm

I'm not sure. The test went like this, you heard a tone, then pushed the button. Same tone only softer and if you heard it, pushed the button etc... Then they switched to a different tone. It seemed like there were three or four cycles of this. The instructor said that the lower the number you got on the printout the better. So I got a zero at 2k and 20's at 6K. I think passing was less than 40. Some of the troops got 5's and 10's accross the board. I just found it interesting in that what I hear might be very different than what others might hear. Robert.

[greywarden]

Re: OT: Hearing test

Pshh... haha. C'mon it's the military, I usually do really well on the test, I can actually hear well above 20khz, but it was probably some E1,2,3 kid that just handed you the printout lol. I seriously doubt they put in that much effort. Since the only jobs that require exceptional hearing/sight are pilots, etc.