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10 Truly Useful Online Hearing Tests
[center][font size="4"]10 Truly Useful Online Hearing Tests[/font]
That Will Help You Monitor Your Hearing
[font size="1"]© 2013-2016 Dr. Ir. Stéphane Pigeon[/font][/center]
[font size="3"][font color="dodgerblue"]Calibrated Tests versus Non-Calibrated[/font][/font]
First, let's introduce an important distinction between online hearing tests: they can be calibrated or not.
[font color="dodgerblue"]Calibrated tests[/font] offer you an indication of your absolute hearing thresholds. This is what your ENT measures when you are placed in an isolated cabin and asked to listen to individual test tones. Results of such a hearing test are often summarized in an audiogram, a graph showing your hearing thresholds across various frequencies such as the one depicted aside.
Until recently, it was assumed that such calibrated hearing tests were impossible to conduct online. Today, most headphones have a pretty flat frequency curve within the frequency range used in a hearing test. If headphones are now good enough to run a hearing test, yet it must be ensured that your computer and headphones are calibrated: they have to output just the right amount of 'loudness' required to run a standardized test. Specialized equipment would be needed at this stage, such as a calibrated microphone, a calibrated sound level meter... and an anechoic room! However, decent results can be obtained using a simple trick. This trick requires producing a specific sound in your room — the sound of your hands rubbing one against the other for example — then playing a similar sound through your computer and headphone, and adjusting your computer's output level to match the loudness achieved by your hands. That trick first appeared on AudioCheck.net, in 2012 and is now used by my many websites offering calibrated online hearing tests.
[font color="dodgerblue"]Non-calibrated tests[/font] are those running without a precise reference level. During these tests, you will often be asked to turn the level of your computer up until you comfortably hear the sounds used for the test. Although it could be interpreted as a way of calibrating your system, it isn't, because adjusting your computer level until you hear something by definition compensates for your hearing loss. This is the reason these tests cannot measure your hearing loss directly but will try to infer such a loss from other factors, such as having a difficulty in hearing the higher frequencies. Non-calibrated tests will usually fail when your hearing loss is attenuating all frequencies by the same amount. Therefore, successfully passing a non-calibrated test does not in itself mean that your hearing is perfect. Keep that in mind. Non-calibrated tests however can be useful to test other hearing impairments, such as speech intelligibility, especially under noisy conditions, or to test the dynamic range of your hearing.
(more at linked headline)
That Will Help You Monitor Your Hearing
[font size="1"]© 2013-2016 Dr. Ir. Stéphane Pigeon[/font][/center]
Online hearing tests offer a convenient way to check your hearing over time, allowing you to detect a possible hearing loss or a degradation of your hearing as soon as possible, without the need to consult an audiologist for this routine check. These tests can be used to confirm that your hearing has returned back to normal after your ears were stressed, for example, such as during a loud concert, or to assess the performance of your hearing aids. Beware, not all online hearing tests perform equally well. Here are the ones that worked for me along with how to use them.
[font size="3"][font color="dodgerblue"]Calibrated Tests versus Non-Calibrated[/font][/font]
First, let's introduce an important distinction between online hearing tests: they can be calibrated or not.
[font color="dodgerblue"]Calibrated tests[/font] offer you an indication of your absolute hearing thresholds. This is what your ENT measures when you are placed in an isolated cabin and asked to listen to individual test tones. Results of such a hearing test are often summarized in an audiogram, a graph showing your hearing thresholds across various frequencies such as the one depicted aside.
Until recently, it was assumed that such calibrated hearing tests were impossible to conduct online. Today, most headphones have a pretty flat frequency curve within the frequency range used in a hearing test. If headphones are now good enough to run a hearing test, yet it must be ensured that your computer and headphones are calibrated: they have to output just the right amount of 'loudness' required to run a standardized test. Specialized equipment would be needed at this stage, such as a calibrated microphone, a calibrated sound level meter... and an anechoic room! However, decent results can be obtained using a simple trick. This trick requires producing a specific sound in your room — the sound of your hands rubbing one against the other for example — then playing a similar sound through your computer and headphone, and adjusting your computer's output level to match the loudness achieved by your hands. That trick first appeared on AudioCheck.net, in 2012 and is now used by my many websites offering calibrated online hearing tests.
[font color="dodgerblue"]Non-calibrated tests[/font] are those running without a precise reference level. During these tests, you will often be asked to turn the level of your computer up until you comfortably hear the sounds used for the test. Although it could be interpreted as a way of calibrating your system, it isn't, because adjusting your computer level until you hear something by definition compensates for your hearing loss. This is the reason these tests cannot measure your hearing loss directly but will try to infer such a loss from other factors, such as having a difficulty in hearing the higher frequencies. Non-calibrated tests will usually fail when your hearing loss is attenuating all frequencies by the same amount. Therefore, successfully passing a non-calibrated test does not in itself mean that your hearing is perfect. Keep that in mind. Non-calibrated tests however can be useful to test other hearing impairments, such as speech intelligibility, especially under noisy conditions, or to test the dynamic range of your hearing.
(more at linked headline)