Question Eardrums

[Linguofreak]

Just a really random question for everybody.

It's a fairly commonplace matter of human experience (I assume) that your eardrums have a bit of room to move in or out, and that you can shift them by adjusting pressure in your nose. But while I'm sure most people have noticed this, you hardly ever hear it discussed.

So, do you go about life with your eardrums in or out? I find there's a noticeable difference in the volume of sounds between the two states.

 

[Urwumpe]

I don't know about in or out. I simply know that I can't hear (and play) music if the eardrum is under too much tension. Usually only a short phenomena, when going up and down the hills fast (car or ropecar). But it also happens when I have a cold, and then it is really nasty and requires some action to equalize the pressure.

 

[MaxBuzz]

An excellent example would be recording your own voice on tape.
It will likely be different from how you hear your voice. since the skull does not interfere with the sound

Почему человек не узнаёт свой голос на записи

Каждый человек привыкает к собственному голосу. Мы слышим его каждый день, разговаривая с другими людьми, и даже не обращаем внимание на..

vk.com

 

[Arvil]

Default state would be a neutral position. If you then go up elevation, it pops out, then you have to relieve it. If you then go down, it goes in, and you relieve it again. Or just take cold medicine.

 

[Linguofreak]

Default state would be a neutral position. If you then go up elevation, it pops out, then you have to relieve it. If you then go down, it goes in, and you relieve it again. Or just take cold medicine.

The interesting thing, though, is that I tend to prefer a sucked-in position to neutral, for whatever reason.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Be careful of your ears... this is coming from someone with a 4K Hz tone in his head 24/7.

 

[Arvil]

Mine is about 6.5 KHz, they told me age-related.

 

[Urwumpe]

6.5 kHz? Isn't that far outside the audible range?

 

[Arvil]

Typical human hearing ranges from about 20 Hz to about 20 KHz, unless you’re unfortunate enough to get old.
When young I could hear the ultrasonic motion detectors in some store security alarm systems.

 

[n72.75]

I used to be able to hear the 15kHz transformer in CRT TVs. I can still hear up to about that range (but not much beyond it), but it's pretty rare to encounter a CRT.

 

[Linguofreak]

6.5 kHz? Isn't that far outside the audible range?

Not until you're quite old.

 

[Notebook]

Its normal for the higher frequencies to be lost as we age. We used to have spot frequencies on VTR clocks. From memory 100Hz, 1KHz(with an option for 440Hz) and finally 12KHz. Use to be scary watching audio meters responding to the last tone, but not be able to hear it.
I was long past retirement by that time, so it wasn't a problem...

Went looking for some VTR clocks on youtube but they are all wrong and none has the tones that went between -30 and -20.

 

[Urwumpe]

Its normal for the higher frequencies to be lost as we age. We used to have spot frequencies on VTR clocks. From memory 100Hz, 1KHz(with an option for 440Hz) and finally 12KHz. Use to be scary watching audio meters responding to the last tone, but not be able to hear it.
I was long past retirement by that time, so it wasn't a problem...

Went looking for some VTR clocks on youtube but they are all wrong and none has the tones that went between -30 and -20.

Thats what I also learned. The higher frequencies die first at age and you can't even tell how even a phantom noise in that frequency by damaged cells would sound like anyway: You have never been able to hear it as isolated sounds and have never had cells to sense such frequencies, the "20 kHz limit". Everything past 5000 Hz is just sensory artifacts. I can't really hear the crys of the local bat species or when young mice talk with each other, I just note the presence of a very high sound, but I can't tell its frequency. Its a different sensation, compared to, lets say, tuning guitar strings, when I can tell if a sound is too high or too low.