Hacker News Reader

Comment by manyxcxi | Hacker News Reader

I went to an audiologist a few years back because I could hear certain things that would drive me up the wall. I thought it might be tinnitus or something like that- I ride motorcycles, am on the water in boats, use power tools, etc. Turns out I have exceptional hearing as well, and much better high frequency responses than an average 30 year old. Certain cheap lights and power transformers can drive me absolutely freaking crazy.

View on HN

I'm glad to know it is not just me! Our cheap HP printer makes the worst racket, when the house is quiet I can hear it in all the way in the kitchen from the other side of the house. Nobody else notices it, and I tried unplugging it once and it made an even worse noise (probably would fade as the capacitors discharge but when I was trying to sleep without a fan in another room I didn't care to wait).

As a kid I always used to take the batteries out of clocks when I would sleep at other peoples houses on a couch or something but since becoming an adult around 29 I gained a little more mental control so I can deal with that stuff a little better.

Intra-auricular earphones do the trick for me, temporarily. It's not earplugs but cancels enough to let me sleep.

Yep, I have to be in a top-floor apartment with earplugs and double pane windows. I live near the mountains and it has done a lot for my quality of sleep and quality of life.

That is a good point, when I started sleeping with earplugs at my parents house where I don't have a fan or some noisemaker it made a huge difference to me. I found I would fall asleep much faster even when there was no actual obvious noises to keep me up. I've noticed when I'm falling asleep even minor noises can 'jolt' me (its the best description I can think of) and effectively reset my progress of falling asleep. Putting in earplugs can cut my time-to-sleep in half when I'm away from home.

Also known as the "I'm certain there's a TV that was left on somewhere in this house" phenomenon. I agree, annoying as hell.

Where "left on" means "merely plugged in, because they used a shitty noisy capacitor that whines even when on standby"

OTOH, unplugging those devices saves you energy.

Exactly, it doesn't even need to have a picture on the screen.

i've noticed more and more cheap USB wall-wart chargers. I can hear them pulsing, it's sort of interesting, but super frustrating when trying to go to sleep (I end up just unplugging.. for which you can hear it scream as it drains)

I used to love the idea of a device without fans or spinning hard drive. But the last two "silent" tablets I've had randomly made very faint, but annoying, high pitch squeaking. Vibrating capacitors, I think. So ironically, I was better off with at least a low speed fan to provide white noise to cover up this faint electronic noise.

I feel sorry for house dogs and cats, they must be going crazy listening to all the irritating electronic noises that most people don't notice.

Similarly: birds and old CRTs and fluorescent lights (they are much more sensitive to the flickering than we are)

I so happy to know there are other people that experience this. When I try to explain to people that I can hear a CRT TV with with no sound/muted just because it's on they think I'm crazy.

I was 26 before I realized the whole world couldn't hear CRT screens.

I find that hard to believe (that the whole world can't hear CRT screens) as the capacitor or whatever it was, winds up/down - it's pretty loud. I think it's the case that there are a lot of older people that can't hear that high pitched scream, and its only younger people who can hear in that high frequency.

With an app like Spectral Audio, you can actually prove this to them. Though informing them of their inferior hearing may not be beneficial to a friendship. Ymmv.

I'm 33, I got a powerline plug that emits a high-pitched whine that drives me crazy. When I was in Tokyo, my friends and I would pass outside a shop at night that would have a supremely annoying whine that made me quickly walk away from it, but none of my friends could hear it.

I also frequently have to ask people to repeat themselves and can't hear what they're saying well in noisy environments. I think I have superhuman hearing loss.

There are shops in Tokyo (and other countries) that emit a high pitched noise to keep teenagers from loitering

While I don't think we have those, there are anti-marten devices for cars that are supposedly outside of the range of human hearing. They really hurt.

I'm in Osaka right now and you'll find those around the temples at night. They kill my ears but I'm the only one in my group that can hear them.

I think they're meant to scare cats away, but they work well for teenagers and people like myself (26)

When I was a kid, we had a monitor that whined when there wasn't any video going to it. My parents couldn't hear it, but I could hear it from across the house. I'd get up when my father went to bed to turn it off.

Closer to what I think you're describing: The TV didn't "whine" really (at least, I was never completely conscious of it), but I always knew when it was on.

My hearing isn't quite as good now, but there are still a few devices that I keep unplugged because they're loud and high-pitched.

What you are most likely hearing are switched-mode power supplies, the cheaper the nosier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched-mode_power_supply

"The operating frequency of an unloaded SMPS is sometimes in the audible human range, and may sound subjectively quite loud for people whose hearing is very sensitive to the relevant frequency range."

Even analog power supplies will generate a 50/60hz hum (depending on what the power-lines are providing)

Yes, the one that came with my Amazon Echo is the worst. I can hear it from 15 feet away. If I walk up to it and push on it it stops. I don't think pushing on it really makes the difference, I was guessing that it has to do with grounding it or something electrical changes when I touch it.

The hum you hear is actually double the mains frequency (100/120 Hz) with emphasis on odd harmonics going up. Magnetostriction gives you two expansion/contraction events per wavelength, effectively doubling the frequency. (If everything is perfect, spherical cow in a vacuum, &c.)

I can hear SSDs, consistently when I plug them, and the noise stops when unpluged, is that weird?

Hah. I discovered I could "hear electricity" when I was about 12 (and I still have a bit of it in my 40's), but luckily it was never particularly annoying (unless it was also quite loud).

Bonus: I leveraged it into the ability to emit (by sort-of-whistling with the tip of my tongue against my palate) sounds in the same frequency range (which has provided many hours of amusement over the years).

Oh, and this age-related degradation of hearing in the upper registers is also the basis of a few interesting things, like devices that discourage teens from loitering[1], and apps that allow teens to communicate under the noses of adults[2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito

[2] http://www.psfk.com/2015/09/high-frequency-app-text-ringtone...

Same here. I have above average hearing (30 yo as well) and I hate so many high-pitched tones. But in a club or a bar I can barely understand anyone :(

Same same. Comparing my equal loudness hearing curve to that of my father is scarry, hehe. But neither of us understands too well when is noisy.

This happens to me as well. I'll walk into a restaurant and there is a high pitched ringing coming from the HVAC on the ceiling, I ask anyone else if they hear it… no one does.

I can hear when most TVs are on - actually as I type this I can hear the monitor. It's just a high pitched constant sound like a dog whistle.

Yet when I am in noisy environments I often am much less adept at figuring out what people are saying than others.

Are these two things related?

Probably not. There is a particular kind of hearing problem, where the brain doesn't process the frequency bins that sounds are broken down into very well. It impacts your ability to do source separation and tell the difference between different sources of sound. The symptom of this particular issue is that you can hear just fine when one person is talking, but have trouble in any environment where there are multiple sources of sound, so several people talking at once, background noise etc.

Because people have no problems in the classic quiet room, one person talking sound test environment, it tends to slip through the simple screening tests.

"Because people have no problems in the classic quiet room, one person talking sound test environment, it tends to slip through the simple screening tests."

This is exactly why every time I've had an Audiology test, I've never scored above "Average - Above Average", even though I can hear nearly every fluorescent light ballast, powered-on TV, etc. From my own personal tests that I've done with soundwave generators, I can hear up to about 20khz.

> actually as I type this I can hear the monitor. It's just a high pitched constant sound like a dog whistle.

Curse you for this! I've had this monitor for years without a problem and now I can't unhear it!!

By the way, I have the same exact problems as you do: hypersensitivity to high frequencies, and I can't hear / understand crap in a bar.

Printers, crt displays back when they were a thing, cheap chargers... even low-end LCD displays. All of them emit a high pitched frequency that can be maddening.

Interestingly it's pitched above the range of my tinnitus so I get to hear both most of the time :/

Summer here is my favorite time of year for that reason - the insect noise gets so loud at night, and falls right into the range of the tinnitus and e-noise such that it completely obscures them. It's almost like those sounds aren't there for a few months every year.

I've wondered if hearing loss can be induced purposely for specific ranges for cases like this. Maybe just loud sound of a given frequency would work since that would only resonate with and damage its associated hairs inside the ear.

This Reddit comment [1] suggests that people who work around CRTs a lot have a "notch" on their hearing tests at the CRT frequency of 15.734kHz. So yes it is possible.

On the other hand, you probably don't want the tinnitus that often comes with noise-induced hearing loss. Better to be able to turn off the noise (or wear earplugs) than to hear it all the time.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1tepwv/why_is_t...

Naw. Just wear crappy earplugs (that is, that don't do a great job of silencing).

When I wear earplugs I can understand conversations better. Like many others in this thread, I have uncommonly good hearing but find it difficult to hear any conversation in a loud environment.

I have the same. They said it was hyperacusis. It's different than tinnitus.

This is me too. Also, treble-heavy noises like squeaks drive me insane.

There is not a hinge in my life that goes un-lubricated.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com