OK, Time To Fess Up!

[j chauvin]

At our Mothers' Day/March-May Birthday party today, my nephew's turned me on to the "Mosquito Ringtones" -a ringtone of high-pitch test tones intended to drive others around you nuts -though something people over 30 supposedly cannot hear.

So, let's hear it, ya'll. Check out this website (http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/) and check the various tones. And, let's make sure we are honest.

Using the cheap Cambridge Soundworks computer speakers my nephew had hooked up to his computer, I could hear 17khz on down (I'll be 40 in July).

I just checked with my nicer quality collapsable Sennheiser PX-200's and I could hear something at 19khz on down -though, for some reason, I could not hear 17khz very well. I also think that I'm only hearing lower harmonics of anything about 16khz -hear something at 17khz and above, but it sounds lower in pitch than the 16khz.

I changed out to a pair of Sony in-ear MDR-EX51's and I could hear something at every pitch except 20 khz and above -though again I think it was the lower harmonics at 17khz and above. (The 17 khz was more audible on the cheaper Sony in-ear HP's than the Sennheiser's.)

I don't have the 1/4" to 1/8" to check my Nakamichi SP-7's, though.

Oh, and I hear a 'click' at every frequency -I'm not refering to that sound.

j

[d-ray657]

O.K., I tried it out. Probably oughta turn them in to the FCC or some fair trade agency. Those ringtones were not accurate at all, because I know these fifty year old ears cannot hear 21khz. Several of the supposedly higher tones sounded lower to me.

If you look at the rest of the ad, they say to use the highest khz that you can hear, and others can not hear it. They want kids to buy the ringtones thinking us old farts can't hear them, so the sellers want to make sure that their potential market is as large as possible, no matter what the actual hearing level is of the buyer. This is just my theory. For reference, I am habitually skeptical of sales pitches (no pun intended), but the internet has opened up whole new vistas for snake oil salesmen.

Someone else listen and tell me if its my ears playing tricks on me, or some profiteers are trying to play tricks on kids with too much money in their pockets.

Regards,

D-Ray

[j chauvin]

O.K., I tried it out. Probably oughta turn them in to the FCC or some fair trade agency. Those ringtones were not accurate at all, because I know these fifty year old hears cannot hear 21khz. Several of the supposedly higher tones sounded lower to me.

<snip>

D-Ray


I heard the same thing you did.

I did a little more looking and found this article (http://saunderslog.com/2006/06/12/the-mosquito-ring-tone-this-adult-can-hear-it/).

It led me to this link to down load a REAL test tone generator (http://www.nch.com.au/tonegen/index.html).

I still heard everything below 16K, though the sounds were MUCH more pure. I think I heard 16.5K (or thereabouts -the house is a bit noisy for this test, I think). But, more to the point, I didn't hear any of the noise I head from my first link. I think the guy in the article had it right -the noise was inadvertantly added from conversion to MP3.

j

[d-ray657]

Here's another link to a tone generating site. Unfortunately, I crapped out at about 12.5 khz. :(

http://audiocheck.net/audiotests_frequencycheckhigh.php

Regards,

D-Ray

[Old1625]

Where's my fly swatter...?! :D

I have to admit I haven't been able to hear 17KHz in a number of years now. I fired up an old television set the other day, and was pleased to hear the 15.75 KHz horizontal sweep sing--accompanied by a horizontal white line on the screen--that indicated I wouldn't have to do much work on that section of the set. Above that forget it for these old jug handles of mine. :o

[clifselina]

The 16KHz was distinctive to me. But I couldn't hear anything above that.

Six months to go before I reach 50.

[SPL db]

I'm sorry... did you say something? :)

Scott

[gogofast]

i tried 'em all and can't hear anything...i think my computer speaker's bad.:scratch2::D

[Cadillac Kid]

Those ringtones were not accurate at all, because I know these fifty year old ears cannot hear 21khz. Several of the supposedly higher tones sounded lower to me. ..........

Someone else listen and tell me if its my ears playing tricks on me, or some profiteers are trying to play tricks on kids with too much money in their pockets.

Regards,

D-Ray

The tones on the link are accurate. I just checked a few using an analyzer in ProTools going out through a digi 002 interface. However, when I play them back on the internal speaker in my Mac G5, they sound way off. Kinda buzzy-distorted-harmonic-tones and all are audible.

Using the clean interface I can hear up to 17 kHZ, (with a lot of gain)

[timofred]

That just scared the @#$% out of my cats

[theophile]

That just scared the @#$% out of my cats

Well I crapped-out at 14K.No higher than that.:tears:

Thank GOD the Altecs can blast.

SORRY,YOU'LL HAVE TO SPEAK UP!!! :D

[clifselina]

Well I crapped-out at 14K.No higher than that.:tears:

Thank GOD the Altecs can blast.

SORRY,YOU'LL HAVE TO SPEAK UP!!! :D

If you ever decide to build your own speakers, you could save a fortune on tweeters and never tell the difference!

[shelly_d]

Using a downloaded tone generater and the speakers that came attached to computer monitor these 58 year old ears can make it to about 12K:yes: or so. Can't do more then 8k from that website.:no: I wonder if latency and jitter over the internet could be affecting it:scratch2:. It depends on whether the file feeds from server and plays on your machine in a live direct feed or if the file is transfered in its entirety (or close to it) and then played. I just don't know the answer to that one:dunno:.

[karmaman]

For you guys saying they are inaccurate and trying to fool teenagers into buying them - they're free! They're not trying to sell anything (except maybe generate some ad revenue off their page).

I'm 16 and I can hear all of them ('cept I really have to crank the volume to hear anything over 18kHz).

I put the 15kHz tone on my phone and let it play on repeat during French class a few weeks ago. Half the class was going nuts trying to figure out where it was coming from and the teacher couldn't hear a thing!

[Blue Shadow]

I used this site, differently from how they instruct to see what my hearing curve looks like. http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html

I don't like doing these things, those high frequency tones are uncomfortable to listen to. They are not music.

[scootchu]

My daughter played it for me and from a distance I couldn't hear it from her phone, but close to my ear I heard something, but most likely just hiss. I could tell when it started and stopped, she confirmed it, but man it's sad that teenagers could plan a whole revolution right under our noses through high pitched messages.

[vincei]

There is actually a system for sale called the Mosquito, that emits a tone, likely above 16k, that is supposed to annoy teenagers. Malls use this system to disperse teenagers that "hang around".

[clifselina]

The 16KHz was distinctive to me. But I couldn't hear anything above that.

Six months to go before I reach 50.

Last night, I used a cheap pair of JVC HA-FX33 ear buds. Tonight I used my excellent 16 year old JVC HA-D1000 cans and my Practical Devices XM4 headphone amp and I was able to hear all the tones up to 20KHz.

But, not too bad for an ancient warrior such as myself.

:yippy:

[d-ray657]

I used some Koss Pro sound isolation headphones and had trouble at anything above 13k. Ouch. What is even more frightening is the thought that using the headphones seems to be the equivalent of using hearing aids. Please poke some holes in this theory.

Regards,

D-Ray

[ablethevoice]

At nearly 50...well ok I'm 48 no harm there. Anyway, at 48, I'm good to about 16K, but the odd thing is I seem to have "notch" deafness. As I sweep the frequency above 10K I can hear it quite clearly. As the frequency approaches 13.5k the apparent volume drops off to nearly zero, then my sensitivity improves at about 14K, drops off at 14.6 or 7, picks up again at 15 and up to about 16. Anything above that I can't "hear" but I can "sense". It's odd. I feel a 17 or 18k tone in, of all places, my eyes and my teeth. Doesn't have to be particularly loud either. My spl meter says I was sensing these above 16kHz tones at 78dB. So, word up youngsters. You can't fool this old bull.

[cfranz]

Well, my hearing sucks. My 12K is just barely OK and my 16K is audible but... well... It has to be pretty loud. On the low side, my hearing follows the standard curve.

[pmsummer]

There is actually a system for sale called the Mosquito, that emits a tone, likely above 16k, that is supposed to annoy teenagers. Malls use this system to disperse teenagers that "hang around".

We pipe classical music out where they gather. Disperses 'em better than tear gas.