Hearing test

[audioguru]

I do not know if the Fletcher-Munson curves were used when the signal sources were designed. They show normal hearing loss at low frequencies and at low levels that none of us have so they were probably included.
Today I will return the first demo hearing aids worth $5500.00 (!!) because they sound awful and are larger than the $3500.00 demo ones I have now.

I did the hearing test again today that I did yesterday with my computer speakers and the Phonak hearing aids. The results today are exactly the same as yesterday.

 

[audioguru]

I took back my first (too loud and too shrill) demo hearing aids and said thanks but no thanks to the audiologist and explained that I got a second opinion and their hearing test showed much less high frequency loss than hers. She did another hearing test using warble tones today, said it looks the same as before and gave me a copy. Looking at the copy at home it is a copy of her first test dated 3 weeks ago, not the results of her second test today. Sneaky isn't it?

 

[ronv]

Sneaky indeed.

For years I had an old equalizer in the garage. I wish I still had it. I could have mailed it to you and you could have amped up each stage and tuned your own.
It must have had 15 frequency ranges. Sounded best to me when it had a lopsided grin on it's sliders.

 

[flat5]

I worked with a bass player once (thank deity of your choice) who set his big 15 band equalizer in a zig zag pattern.
He liked the way it looked. Full up and down. Best to just walk away I suspect. Don't say anything.

 

[audioguru]

An equalizer adjusts frequency levels to match your hearing losses and also to match the nulls and resonant peaks of the speakers in the room.
After the hearing test the audiologist had a probe in one ear when the hearing aid and I heard various frequencies, that might have been calibrating the response of the transducers in my ear canal, I should of asked about it.
When I buy or make speakers I select ones with a smooth frequency response with no obvious nulls and peaks so the EQ is simply a little treble boost or cut and the same with the bass. The PRO horn tweeters I worked with produced many resonant nulls and peaks so their EQ was a zig-zag pattern.

 

[flat5]

Sometimes a room will surprise you.
The 'American Hotel' here in Amsterdam has a ground floor room that is used for a Sunday brunch.
Reflective walls and floor. Somewhat large area. I played the brunch alternate Sundays for a year.
A small band. No drums. I brought, at first, alto and tenor sax, flute, clarinet. After the first time I left the tenor at home. The room loved my alto I mean, the room enhanced my alto sound. It was very surprising!
Did nothing special for the tenor, clarinet, or flute.

 

[audioguru]

I can't sing worth a damn. But I sound pretty good in the shower (especially when my wife is with me).

 

[audioguru]

I noticed on my Swiss demo hearing aids that continuous high frequency voice or instrument tones fluttered in amplitude. The same thing happens when My Fluke multimeter produces a "continuity" beep.
Yesterday I went to my hearing aid checkup to have its high frequencies boost increased from 80% to 90% and I asked the audiologist why the tones and beep shudder and can it be fixed. I demo'd the problem with a piezo beeper and battery. It was the anti-feedback program thinking the tones or beep are feedback so it was trying to remove them. The anti-feedback was originally set to "medium" and we tried "low" but the tones still shuddered. Then we tried No anti-feedback for the "music" setting then the shuddering was gone and there was feedback only when I cup my hand over a hearing aid. I asked for a third setting that increases the loudness of vocals and it needed the anti-feedback program set to medium. I did not like the compressor effect so its effect was reduced a little.

The hearing aids have a setting (the 3 settings are stepped in sequence each time a button on a hearing aid or on the remote is pushed) that slowly cuts low and high frequency background noises and reduces the overall levels if it does not hear music or speech. Sometimes this setting becomes confused with music and wrongly thinks it is noise so it cuts it. That is why I hear music with the music setting.

 

[JimB]

The young guy on the left could hear 18kHz, no problem.

The old guy at the keyboard can hear this:

JimB

 

[DerStrom8]

Now we just need some young guy to calibrate it.

Not sure what qualifies as "young" but I'd be happy to give it a go when I get home from work this afternoon

 

[audioguru]

Not sure what qualifies as "young" but I'd be happy to give it a go when I get home from work this afternoon

Which has the worst frequency response, your speakers (or headphones) or your hearing??

Jim, you hear everything with muffled telephone quality.

 

[JimB]

AG wrote:

Jim, you hear everything with muffled telephone quality.

And you don't ?

AG you really crack me up!
My hearing is reasonably flat up to 5kHz (from other tests) or so and then rolls off, whereas your "golden ears" have a falling response all the way from 250hz if the test plots are to be believed.

JimB

 

[audioguru]

I always knew that a telephone response is from 300Hz to only 3kHz. At work I tested the round trip frequency response of a telephone call from one line to another. The central office was analog and not far away. 3kHz was down -12dB so I complained to Bell. They said it is normal since their limit is -15dB which is pretty bad.

My hearing produces tinnitus very high frequency noise all the time that "covers up" low level high frequency sounds. Also my hearing gradually cut the high frequencies fairly linearly. I got used to turning up the volume or turning up the treble controls. I can still hear 8kHz to 12kHz (the sibilants in speech or the sizzle in music) if they are loud enough. I got used to my gradually dropping high frequency hearing which is why the hearing aids have their highs tuned up a little every 2 weeks so I can slowly get used to normal hearing again.

The second word in a modern pop song is Se* which I did not hear before the hearing aids. I thought my wife was telling me, "dinner is ready" but with the hearing aids I hear her saying, "let's have some Se*".

 

[DerStrom8]

Hmm, I'm beginning to worry....

 

[DerStrom8]

Which has the worst frequency response, your speakers (or headphones) or your hearing??

Generally I would say my speakers, but after taking that test I'm beginning to wonder....

 

[audioguru]

Hmm, I'm beginning to worry....
Generally I would say my speakers, but after taking that test I'm beginning to wonder....

People speaking would sound like chipmunks. Adult males in some countries "over there" speak like that. They phone me every day asking if I want my ducts (ducks?) cleaned. They do not even know what is a duct.
I have seen car speakers with no enclosure and they would sound like that since the low frequencies from the rear come around and cancel low frequencies from the front.

 

[DerStrom8]

I'm wondering if the headphones i was using are garbage. Stupid Apple products, they actually belong to my fiance.

 

[DerStrom8]

Well I took it again, different headphones, this is what I got:

Still seems a bit odd to me.

 

[audioguru]

Headphones that completely cover your ears in a cup produce good low frequency levels. I have a drawer full of earbuds that are garbage with no low frequencies and no high frequencies. My Kenwood headphones rest on my ears but do not completely cover them. They produce all audio frequencies fairly well.

My hearing aids produce high frequencies very well but reduce their output below 250Hz where ordinary low frequency sounds go right past them because they do not completely seal the ear canals, they are ventilated.

 

[audioguru]

A couple days ago I came back from my third visit to the hearing aids place where new software was loaded into my demo hearing aids. Turning up the levels to "normal" caused feedback on the music setting (anti-feedback was turned off) so it could not be turned up high enough. Ear molds were made and will be produced to fix that. The voice setting is louder and a second extra sensitive voice setting was added that I requested so that I do not need the remote control to set the volume control, a button on a hearing aid sets the setting.
I have the feeling that my hearing with the hearing aids is approaching the excellent hearing I had as a teenager. The "music" setting makes music sound wonderful. The "automatic" setting has noise sensing and reduction that sometimes acts on music which I do not like. The compressor is perfect and I do not notice it working very well.

The tiny batteries for the hearing aids are zinc-air. They do nothing until a sticker that seals each battery is removed then they gradually begin working after one minute. The batteries are disconnected each night and last about 1 week.