A hearing test is an objective test. Methods of medical and self-testing of hearing

It is not necessary to visit a specialist doctor for a basic hearing test. You only need a high-quality Internet connection and audio output equipment (regular headphones). However, if you suspect hearing problems, it is better to consult a specialist and do not diagnose yourself.

Hearing testing sites usually suggest taking a couple of tests and listening to short sound recordings. Then, based on your answers to questions in tests or how often you turned up the volume on the site while listening to recordings, the service creates an approximate picture of your hearing. However, everywhere (even on the hearing testing sites themselves) they do not recommend trusting these tests 100%. If you suspect hearing loss and/or the service has not provided the best results, please visit a qualified healthcare professional.

Method 1: Phonak

This site specializes in helping people who have hearing problems, plus it distributes modern sound devices own production. In addition to tests, here you can find several useful articles that will help you solve current hearing problems or avoid them in the future.

To perform testing, use these step-by-step instructions:

Method 2: Stopotit

This is a site dedicated to hearing problems. In this case, you are asked to take two tests to choose from, but they are small and involve listening to certain signals. Their margin of error is very high due to many reasons, so you should not trust them completely.

The instructions for the first test look like this:

The second test is a little more extensive and can give the correct result. Here you will need to answer a couple of questions from the questionnaire and listen to the names of the items with background noise. The instructions look like this:

Method 3: Geers

Here you will be asked to listen to sounds of different frequencies and volumes. There are no special differences from the previous two services.

The topic of audio is worth talking about human hearing in a little more detail. How subjective is our perception? Is it possible to have your hearing tested? Today you will learn the easiest way to find out whether your hearing fully corresponds to the table values.

It is known that the average person is able to perceive acoustic waves with the organs of hearing in the range from 16 to 20,000 Hz (depending on the source - 16,000 Hz). This range is called the audible range.

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This test is enough to give you a rough estimate, but if you can't hear sounds above 15 kHz, you should see a doctor.

Please note that there is an audibility problem low frequencies, most likely related to .

Most often, the inscription on the box in the style of “Reproducible range: 1–25,000 Hz” is not even marketing, but an outright lie on the part of the manufacturer.

Unfortunately, companies are not required to certify all audio systems, so it is almost impossible to prove that this is a lie. Speakers or headphones may reproduce boundary frequencies... The question is how and at what volume.

Spectrum issues above 15 kHz are a fairly common age-related phenomenon that users are likely to encounter. But 20 kHz (the same ones that audiophiles fight so hard for) is usually heard only by children under 8–10 years old.

It is enough to listen to all files sequentially. For a more detailed study, you can play samples, starting with the minimum volume, gradually increasing it. This will allow you to get a more correct result if your hearing is already slightly damaged (remember that to perceive some frequencies you need to exceed a certain threshold value, which, as it were, opens and helps the hearing aid to hear it).

Do you hear the entire frequency range that is capable of?

When you want to choose headphones, you research them specifications, where among others there is the value o. This value is important because it reflects the technical ability of headphones to reproduce frequencies that a person can hear.

If a person’s hearing is not damaged, then he can distinguish sound at frequencies from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. However, this is ideally real life our range will be different, and what’s more sad, it will be narrower than the classic 20 Hz - 20000 Hz.

What does a person hear and what does hearing health depend on?

The older we get, the worse our hearing becomes. Like everything else in our body, hearing begins to perform its tasks worse with age.

Those who are already about 30 years old can hardly distinguish a sound at a frequency of 20,000 Hz; they simply do not hear it, because hearing began to deteriorate. This is not a disease and not something to seriously worry about, this is how our hearing organ works - it does not recover and only gets worse over time.

By the age of 40, you most likely will not be able to distinguish a sound at a frequency of 18,000 Hz or even 17,000 Hz, and by the age of 50, it is considered good to hear a sound at a frequency of 15,000 Hz.

Of course, each person’s hearing is unique; someone even at 50 years old can hear a sound with a frequency of 17,000 Hz, while others cannot even hear 12,000 Hz.

As I said above, hearing is not restored. The design of the organ is such that what an irritation nerve endings respond to special hairs that move when exposed to sound, i.e. air. With age, some hairs die off, while others are irreversibly damaged by listening to loud sounds.

Yes, yes, hearing can be damaged simply by going to concerts frequently, or working as a construction worker with heavy equipment, like a jackhammer, without hearing protection.

Every day we subject our hearing to serious tests, and every day it gets worse. Even a trip on the subway without headphones with active noise reduction slightly worsens our ability to perceive sound every time, and this is irreversible.

Therefore, you need to think about health from a young age, without expecting a noticeable degradation of the ability to hear, because there is no turning back.

Online hearing testing

Well, enough theory, let's check how well you hear different sound frequencies.

For simplicity and clarity, there will be only 4 frequencies that will show your current capabilities.

The fact is that hearing degradation occurs from the edges of the audible range, provided that there is no injury eardrum or inner ear disease.

Thus, it is clear that if changes in hearing have begun, then you will begin to hear worse at the border of the possible, i.e. at a frequency of 20 Hz or 20000 Hz. And the narrower the range, the more your hearing is damaged.

If you hear sound at 20 Hz, then you are fine with the perception of the lower threshold and that’s great. This means your hearing is more or less good condition, but don’t rejoice ahead of time, let’s listen to the following sounds.

Sound at 250 Hz is very important for our life. A lot of sounds from the surrounding world, people and animals sound approximately at this frequency, so if you hear it, then you can live a full life normal life. But if you can’t hear it, this is a reason to immediately consult a doctor; even very old people who have not had hearing injuries can hear this sound well.

Sound at 2 kHz here only for the general picture, it should be heard by absolutely all people who have not had injuries to their hearing organs or their serious illness. This is one of the most loaded frequencies, because Most instruments sound at this frequency. Also, quite a few high-pitched female voices use this frequency and therefore it is extremely important for human life.

This is a test piece that reproduces 16 kHz audio. According to statistics, not every person who has lived to be 30 years old can hear this sound. Therefore, if you cannot hear it well and you are over 30 years old, then no big reasons for frustration. Of course, it’s a pity that your hearing has begun to deteriorate, but you are not yet outside the norm and there is no particular reason to worry. Although, of course, going to a doctor and having your hearing tested using professional equipment would not be a bad idea.

Let me just say that I am now 34 years old and I hear sound at a frequency of 16 kHz clearly and distinctly. Perhaps I should praise myself that I hear a little more than my peers.

This is a test recording sound with a frequency of 20 kHz. According to statistics, not all people over 20 years of age can hear it, even if they have never had any injuries or diseases of the hearing organs.

If you are over 20 years old and have not heard anything, do not be upset, this, unfortunately, is normal.

Personally, I no longer hear this frequency, but I am already 34 years old and this is absolutely normal for my age, although, of course, a little sad.

Why hearing testing is important for everyone

Of course ours online testing hearing is quite fluent, moreover, it was carried out on your personal equipment, which can cause distortion and disrupt the purity of the experiment.

However, even such testing may make you think about your hearing health. After all, if you are still young, but already have trouble hearing the 16 kHz frequency, then you probably need to see a doctor for a more serious approach to this problem.

Plus, this quick test shows that for people over 30, there's little point in worrying about not listening or having Bluetooth headphones as their primary headphones.

The fact is that codecs for wireless transmission of music from music save the bandwidth of the Bluetooth channel, thereby increasing the stability of data transmission. And if you are young and listen to records, then you should think about using quality wired headphones. But if you are already 40 years old or older, then the quality of music transmission via Bluetooth will be enough for you, because... Those frequencies that are artificially cut off during encoding, you most likely will no longer hear and will not feel the difference in sound quality.

As you can see, every cloud has a silver lining. Yes, we are all getting older every year, and our hearing is fading, but now we can listen to comfortable music without a twinge of conscience and not worry about the quality of music transmission; online hearing testing has clearly shown us that this no longer matters much.

The applications that we will discuss below will help you understand how normal your hearing is. If the results are far from optimal, it makes sense to consult a doctor.

uHear

uHear measures your hearing sensitivity and how well you adapt to environmental noise. The first test takes approximately five minutes, the second - no more than a minute. For each test you will need headphones, and in the application you can choose their type - in-ear or on-ear.

The test determines the sensitivity of each ear separately. This is achieved by reproducing noise different frequencies and determining the upper and lower limits of your hearing.

Hortest

Hörtest for Android works on the same principle. You need to press the button every time you hear sound in the headphones. I'll say the obvious, but don't fool yourself and don't press a button just to improve your test results. You go through it for yourself.

Mimi Hearing Test

Mimi Hearing Technologies is a company that produces equipment for deaf people. If you have an iOS device, I would recommend taking this test. The application works on a similar principle to the previous ones. Every time you hear a sound in your left or right ear, you need to press the Left or Right button, respectively. The test result is your age based on hearing sensitivity. If it matches your real age, great. If the difference is very large, then your hearing is not normal.

Bonus

If you don't have iOS or Android devices, you can use this video test on YouTube. As with all previous applications, headphones are required.

Tell us at what point you stopped hearing sounds and how old you are.