How low can the human ear hear??

Ricardo

Last night I was listening to some music and my 14 yr old son asked me to play a Eminem CD....WOW!!!; my SVS really showed what it's capable of; that (music) has real low bass.

I was surprised though that in the (song) that shaked the house the most, I could not really hear a corresponding sound..... has anyone else experienced this? Is it that the frequency was too low for my old ears?????

Mike682

Don't know, I was always told that humans on avg, hear around 20hz to 20khz, and the ability to hear the higher frequencies diminishes as we get older.

tecmo04

i thought the low end was 16hz and the high was 24khtz, not like it matters that much... its alot more fun to feel it then hear it! :cool:

aaharvel

25hz to 12.5 khz for the average human ear maybe?

RuSsMaN

20 cycles to 20,000 cycles. Hearing loss typically starts at the top end of the spectrum, and works it's way down. Most adult males start to experience some sort of roll off (of the top end) in their early to mid 30's. In general, women have better hearing than men also.

16Hz is the lowest note on a very large pipe organ.

Cheers,
Russ

Ricardo

Well, I guess that my ear could not hear..the PB10-ISD is supposed to get down to around 20 Hz, so I probably cannot hear that low. I love "feeling" the bass, but when it comes with sound. Without the sound it is very weird.....

neomagus00

has anyone else ever heard the urban legend that if you play an exceedingly powerful 16 Hz tone (ie 110+ dB), you can't actually hear it, but it modulates the human voice to the point that you can't understand what anyone in the room is saying?

Mjr7531

I thought I could hear down to 16 Hz, but I think that might have actually been the filing cabinet nearby. It's hard for me to tell, but... I think I can hear down that low, I'd have to pull my SVS outside to really find out.

PolkThug

Mjr7531 wrote:

I thought I could hear down to 16 Hz, but I think that might have actually been the filing cabinet nearby. It's hard for me to tell, but... I think I can hear down that low, I'd have to pull my SVS outside to really find out.

You won't hear the actual 16Hz tone, but you may hear things in the room resonating, and feel the pressure. Also if you're cranking it, you could hear a 32Hz harmonic when it starts to distort.

tecmo04

neo your right. if you modify the sound waves in the air that much u shouldnt be able to hear anyone. doing in a car is much better example (smaller area, more subs/power). i got 2 of the MM2124 with an 800 watt amp. when i crank it up not only is it hard to hear the passenger, i can hear the sound waves from my voice being distorted. its a fun eire feeling.

gmorris

I'd bet that you are actually sitting in a room node, or a null spot. The low tone is shaking your house, but you may not be able to hear it in the particular spot you were sitting in. Play the, ahem, song again, this time move around the room, and I'll bet you can quickly find a spot you can actually hear the tone.

Ricardo

I was actually moving around, "feeling" the bass in the walls, doors.......and the stair rail; this thing was vibrating in such a way that I thought it would break any moment!!!!

gmorris

that's awesome. i've gone outside when my sub was pounding away, and the vinyl siding on the entire house vibrates.

jmierzur

While I was setting up my two PC-Ultra's to the 16Hz tuning option, the lowest tone I could actually hear something was 19Hz. The lowest test tone I have is 10Hz. I could start feeling the tones at about 11-12Hz. After completing the setup, I was a bit nauseous from the experience.

neomagus00

jmierzur wrote:

After completing the setup, I was a bit nauseous from the experience.

that's just your stomach telling you you need more bass...

gmorris

just don't **** your pants

jmierzur

gmorris wrote:

just don't **** your pants

I can see myself trying to explain that to the wife.

tecmo04

if you watch mythbusters u know theres no such thing as the "brown note"

neomagus00

no, their test was flawed. they only tried a couple discrete tones - you'd need to do a slow sweep to include every tone from say 5 Hz to 20 Hz to make sure you didn't miss it.

WilliamM2

In the mythbuster's test, he was also wearing hearing protection. I don't blame him, but that would also alter the results.

Mjr7531

I beleive it's there. I've noticed that it doesn't happen your big sub is playing, but rather when you see it for the first time in your house.

Dr. Spec

The audibility of bass frequencies is "threshold dependent". This means that any frequency can eventually be perceived by the human ear if the sound pressure is high enough.

Most people use 20 Hz as the infrasonic cut-off at normal listening levels, but we can most certainly hear deeper frequencies at higher sound pressures.

The Yates review hotlinked below shows the audibility thresholds down to 15 Hz for the subwoofer FR plots.

http://www.ultimateavmag.com/features/1004way/index4.html

For the sickos out there, I think the audibility threshold for 5 Hz is around 135 dB. :eek:

neomagus00

wouldn't it be way cool to be able to manage 135 dB @ 5 Hz? imagine your capabilities at a wimpy 20 Hz!