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Can you hear the mosquito?

Can you hear the sound?

  • Yes

    Votes: 71 89.9%

  • No

    Votes: 8 10.1%
  • Total voters
    79
OutThere

OutThere

macrumors 603
Original poster
Dec 19, 2002
5,730
3
NYC
I know that some speakers can't reproduce the frequencies etc etc etc...but lets see.

The mosquito ringtone (http://www.moconews.net/the-mosquito-ringtone.html) is a 17khz sound that apparently teenagers and kids can hear, but adults can't. Can you?

Attached wav file.

edit: Another version, much more powerful, here (thanks felldownthewell)

edit2: A page with tones from 14khz-20khz here (thanks plinden)
 

Attachments

  • 17KHz.wav.zip
    13.7 KB · Views: 640
Can you hurt your ears if you cant hear it but say turned your stereo up to the loudest it can. My brother can hear it hes 17 but my 10 year old bro cant. My dog was looking confused also.

I swear I think my ears hurt but I dont know if its because of this or I think my ears hurt lol

I am 21 and cant hear it
 
AHHHHH my ears! that hurts! :eek:

edit: dont use headphones!

edit 2: Ok, I just tried it again...(I know, Im an idiot)... but it wasnt that bad the second time.
 
Oh yeah - I head it.

High-pitched, but easy to hear...kind of annoying, actually, like sliding down your nails on a chalkboard.
 
i decided to test this noise by playing it in a room with all my roommates (ages between 18-20). as soon as the noise was over one of them spoke up and said "what was that terrible noise?". this comment elicited sounds of agreement and bewilderment amongst the rest of my roommates, so i guess it would be safe to say that all 5 of us could hear it

i then told them the story of the mosquito noise and we continued the testing with a range of frequencies, each of us finding our personal threshold. interestingly enough even the slight variations in our ages (2 years at most) had an impact on the frequencies we could hear. with the younger people having the greatest range.
 
I had the volume turned up all the way on this PB, and I didn't hear a damn thing. :(

Edit: Ok I just now played it with the headphones on with the volume turned all the way up, and I could faintly hear it. This is very weird because the external speakers on this PB are usually extremely loud; however, the Bose headphones were able to pick up the sound. :)
 
I heard it easily, it sounded like a TV on mute. It's interesting to find out some people can faintly hear it. I've always wondered whether frequency hearing loss was an all or nothing phenomena. Apparently it's not. :cool:
 
mad jew said:
I heard it easily, it sounded like a TV on mute. It's interesting to find out some people can faintly hear it. I've always wondered whether frequency hearing loss was an all or nothing phenomena. Apparently it's not. :cool:
Click to expand...

I've been accused of lacking many attributes in my persona, but frequency loss? That's a low blow! :)
 
I have to come down on the "not hearing" side, with a caveat: Although I really didn't hear much, my ears hurt and I knew when it began and ended.

I would probably be able to learn to answer my phone with it - though I wouldn't want to.

I am 30. However, I had two operations as a child for fluid build-up behind my eardrums, so the subsequent minor scarring has always rendered my hearing somewhat patchy...
 
Ah! So this is what everyone has been talking about! I can hear it, like madjew said, it sounds a lot like a TV on mute.

Uber
 
mad jew said:
I heard it easily, it sounded like a TV on mute. It's interesting to find out some people can faintly hear it. I've always wondered whether frequency hearing loss was an all or nothing phenomena. Apparently it's not. :cool:
Click to expand...

I thought it sounded like something familiar.

Although the noise was more annoying then the t.v on mute.
 
I hear it and it annoys me. Just like mosquitos. And I'm 40 today. Maybe I could have heard dog whistles when I was 20. ;)
 
riciad said:
Can't hear a thing and although I'm getting on in years my hearing is usually fantastic.
Click to expand...
Well, FWIW, I used headphones. Did you (or non-computer speakers)? Otherwise, your speakers might not be able to reproduce that frequency.
 
it sounds like electricity, if that makes any sense. like when nothing's making any noise but you can hear your turned-off computers and tv's. or maybe that's just me. and like a couple of people, i felt it as well as heard it. it made me sort of dizzy...i'll stick to my current ringtone.
 
Yepp, I can hear it. So could my sister, but my parents cant.

I think thats really cool! :)
 
I'm 28 and I heard it, but I had to turn up the volume on my Mac to half, and even then it was just a small but very noticable change in "noise". When it'd played for a couple of seconds, I couldn't tell the difference from normal background noise, when it ended I felt the change in "noise" again.

Edit: I listened to it again, I can tell it's there all the way, but it's quite faint.
 
Yeah I could hear it easily, my mum didn't hear it at all. Reminds me of those sonic pest-control things that people have to keep ants/mice etc away. My aunty has one and whenever I'm at her place I have to turn it off because the high pitched beeping annoys me - she thinks I'm crazy because she can't hear it.
 
I actually tried this at work.

My friend, who is 28, can hear it really well, and it hurts his ears pretty bad.

Myself, who is 30, can her it pretty well, and it annoys me.

My manager, who is 40, can only hear it if I crank it up real loud, and it doesn't bug him that bad.

My other manager, who is around 46, can also only here it if I crank it up, and again, doesn't bug him so much.
 
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