The Ear Lab The Ear Lab

The Ear Lab tools

Hearing range test

A pure-tone sweep from 8 kHz to 20 kHz. Tap "I can't hear it anymore" when the tone disappears. The test estimates the high-frequency limit your specific hardware + ears reproduce together, compared to ISO 7029 age-typical norms.

Educational tool, not a clinical hearing test. Your speakers/headphones, browser, and ambient noise all shape the result. A real high-frequency audiogram uses calibrated equipment in a sound booth and tests bone conduction. Use this to build intuition, not to diagnose.

Before you start

  1. 1
    Headphones, not speakers. Speakers in normal rooms cannot reproduce frequencies above 12-15 kHz reliably.
  2. 2
    Quiet room. Background noise masks the high-frequency tones quickly.
  3. 3
    Comfortable volume. Set device volume so a 1 kHz reference tone is clearly audible but not loud. The slider in this tool is software-capped.
  4. 4
    Your age (so we can compare you to ISO 7029 age-typical norms).

The Ear Lab Notes

One short note a week. Tinnitus and hearing health.

Plain-language summaries of new research, tool updates, and useful primary-source links. Unsubscribe in one click. No spam, ever.

No tracking pixels. Read our privacy notes.

How this works

The test plays a logarithmic frequency sweep from 8 kHz to 20 kHz over about 20 seconds. The Web Audio API generates the tone directly in your browser, with software-capped amplitude. When you tap "I can't hear it anymore," the frequency at that moment is recorded as your high-frequency hearing limit for THIS hardware + ambient combination.

This is NOT a clinical audiogram. It is shaped by:

  • Your speakers or headphones (most consumer audio rolls off above 15-18 kHz)
  • Your browser's audio output frequency response
  • Ambient background noise
  • How carefully you tap "stopped hearing"
  • Your actual hearing threshold at extended-high frequencies

What it is useful for: noticing meaningful changes in your own range over time (set a calendar reminder for once a quarter, with the same headphones in the same room), or confirming a suspicion that your high-frequency hearing has shifted. For diagnostic certainty, see an audiologist for extended-high-frequency audiometry.

ISO 7029 age-typical hearing thresholds

ISO 7029 publishes age-related median hearing thresholds. Roughly, the highest frequency the average person can still hear comfortably:

  • Age 20: ~20 kHz
  • Age 30: ~17 kHz
  • Age 40: ~16 kHz
  • Age 50: ~14 kHz
  • Age 60: ~12 kHz
  • Age 70: ~10 kHz

These are statistical averages. Individual variation is large. Noise exposure history matters more than age for many people.

Related reading