Can You Hear Like a Teenager?

[MaverickSawyer]

I've lost a region of hearing in a particular range, but don't remember which one (guess I'm losing some memory too?). Anyway, the health and safety people gripe at me every year because of it (not like they have all my previous tests in the folder that they are holding at the time).

I've worked around aircraft for 10 years, then moved to industrial maintenance, both involve high speed machines that are really loud. So despite (often) double hearing protection, loud noise over time will still get you.

For some fun/future reference... The EA-6B aircraft (under tension, meaning ready for a cat-shot) is without a doubt the loudest freaking thing I've ever heard. It's so loud that it's painfull, makes people bones hurt it's so bad...

Well, those J-85 are fairly small diameter, so the turbine speeds are astronomical. Beats being around a Turbomeca Mabore!

 

[FADEC]

Yesterday I did the test (using the downloaded file) under influence of alcohol. Surprisingly the alcohol did increase my hearing range by 1 k. I clearly could hear the tone at 16 k with and without headphones at normal volume. Now it has decreased to 15 k again.

Any medical explanation for this?

 

[80mileshigh]

I spent most of my 20s playing in very loud bands so I approached this test with some apprehension. But happily I can hear to 15k on speakers. With headphones I feel like I can just barely hear the 16k but I might be imagining it.