[R-390] Audiophools - hearing loss

[John KA1XC]

High frequency loss isn't the only the only type of hearing loss.

Years ago back in my ET days I had a boss who was an audio guru, and he told
me of a phenomena called "shooters notch", which is a notch in the ear's
frequency response around 4 KHz (as I remember). The name kind of explains
how you get it.

So a couple of months ago I was playing around with a new set of head phones
I picked up and had them hooked up to an audio signal generator, and sure
enough I found I have a nice deep notch in my left ear right about at that
frequency. Dam!

Testing your own hearing frequency response is easy with a pair of
headphones and a sig gen,
lab quality gear is not required. The trick is to only make the tone just
loud enough to hear, and change the frequency slowly; that way any roll-off
or notches are easily noticed.


John




>
> > Thirty years ago I could run the function generator thru a speaker up to
> > 18-19khz
> > and be able to hear the 'noise'.  Last time I checked (5 years back)
> > 13-14khz is the best I could do.  Even if every claim was true, I would
be
> > paying
> > for a lot of sound I can't hear anymore.
>
>
>
> I had to have mine measured when I retired from the service in 1995. After
> flying for 15 years my hearing was right up there except for the first
signs
> of a drop in high frequencies. Nothing major, but a drop was beginning to
> show. I feel lucky to have kept it all. Some of the drops could be
> attributed to aging headphones and a noisy testing chamber too. You know,
> the typical military hardware.
>
>
> Barry
>
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