It’s the higher frequencies particularly that help us recognise speech as the majority of vowel sounds rely on higher frequencies to form them. That is why, as we age, the spoken word often becomes more difficult to resolve from background noise.
The downside of headphones is that you lose much of the perceived low frequency sound which is felt, rather than heard which the brain then translates into sound. 30hz down is generally felt rather than actually heard. Largerspeakers on the other hand impart those lower frequencies but the compromise is the top end. So for rock and bass heavy music, speakers maybe better, but for vocals and classical music headphones maybe better.
Headphones do suit my music taste, mainly singer songwriters and a lot of West Coast music from the 1960s and early 1970s, a lot of which I have on SACD. I just bought a Denon CDC 2500 SACD player and the detail that that players digs out is pretty awesome and it's that player that is driving a wholly headphone system at the moment. Never been a bass head.
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Mosquito_Noise_Device.jpg/1200px-Mosquito_Noise_Device.jpg&hash=01df68378e5f26b8196666501b917ee3&return_error=1 The Mosquito - Wikipedia /proxy.php?image=https://en.wikipedia.org/static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png&hash=a38868db11034e8e446c1f2f20a712fe&return_error=1 en.wikipedia.org
I played the sound clip (twice) and I couldn't hear it! data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
me neither....unsurprisingly
i did a course once ...a few years ago where one of these devices was mounted outside the back of the building ..where we stood having a brew
me and the others could'nt hear it......one of the girls ..who i think was late twenties did
...she could'nt hack it and went in doors
Those of us with Tinitus often hear very high frequencies - even when they don't exist!
A DIY high-frequency hearing test is pretty easy to conduct using Internet resources - assuming your PC speakers are good for 15kHz . One could carry the test out each year and record the deterioration.data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Go on, depress yourself:
/proxy.php?image=http://www.echalk.co.uk/Science/biology/hearing/HowOldIsYourHearing/images/hearingIcon.png&hash=e32effd256576bdbfc796ac052ba8944&return_error=1 I took a hearing age test! What's your hearing age? How old is your hearing? Take this test to find out! www.echalk.co.uk
Oh well just took the test 3 times and according to it my hearing is 31 old .
I'm 41 https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/[email protected]/png/64/1f600.png.
It'll be interesting to take it in a year or so.
As well as physical hearing loss - with usually the high frequencies going first, the brain slowly loses the ability to process complex sounds, so the ability to discern voices in a crowded room is reduced.
This is one reason why some people complain about not being able to hear dialogue on some movies very well.
Sensitivity to high frequencies can also be an early sign of tinitus. This is not always a ringing in the ears but can be sensitivity to specific frequency ranges, or a continuous tone or drone when the environment is very quiet.
In all seriousness I do now struggle a little with conversations when there's a lot of background noise. I even went for a hearing check recently but apparently everything's fine. Like noiseboy72 suggests maybe it's my brain!