Prompted by Steve Mueske’s blog post about LFOs I thought it worth while to talk a little about hearing range.

At it’s best hearing is quoted at about 20Hz to 20kHz, but that begins deteriorating at about age 8. 
 

That is the range much audio gear is designed to.

Of course there is quite a degree of variation between people. The lower bound can be as low as 12Hz and the upper bound can be as high as 28kHz. That said, the human hearing is most sensitive to frequencies between 2kHz and 5kHz.

The expectation is that by the time you get to about 35 that the peak of 20Hz to 20kHz would typically be closer to 80Hz to 14kHz for a man and 60Hz to 16kHz for a woman. By 50 that could be 160Hz to 10kHz for a man and 150Hz to 12kHz for a woman.

Hearing Range Test

If you try the test, use headphones, and please post your results in the comments... at what frequency do you start to hear it, and at what frequency do you stop hearing it?