Can you hear the kiddie ringtone?

[nytemare]

A couple years back, kids and teens started using a high pitched ringtone that is normally out of the range of adult hearing so they could text in class, etc. I am in my upper 30's and can hear it. It is a bit irritating.

Kids are at least using some ingenuity.

Link for tone

http://graphics.nytimes.com/packages/audio/nyregion/20060610_RINGTONE.mp3

Article

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/technology/12ring.html

[struggle4progress]

1. well crap i is an old deaf fart

[nytemare]

4. LOL!

I am becoming a blind fart, so I can't say much. :D

[kentauros]

2. Yeah, I can hear it, at close to 49 years of age.

Then again, I can remember getting almost instant headaches when going into retail centers that had "silent" alarm systems. They seemed to use the same frequencies, yet I could hear them. Irritating doesn't even begin to describe it...

[nytemare]

8. I don't know if I've heard one of those before.

Of course, I may have heard it and asked, "what is that annoying fucking beep?"

I could be wrong, though.

[kentauros]

9. For me, it wasn't a 'beep" but a continuous tone.

Very high-pitched and loud, at least to my hearing. I would guess it likely irritated the ears of seeing-eye dogs, too.

[valerief]

12. It was the same for me. I can't hear any beep. Maybe we're both not hearing it all. nt

[kentauros]

13. Okay, I was referring to the "silent" alarm sound, not the link.

But on the link, it just sounded like a sine wave with a little bit of noise thrown in to soften the edge a bit. I suppose I could download it and see how it looks in an audio-editor ;)

[kentauros]

16. Yep, just a high-frequency sine-wave.

Not even any noise thrown in like I was thinking:

[valerief]

17. Well, that settles that, I suppose! Next, lights we can't see. nt

[valerief]

3. I'm closer to 60 than 50 and it's loud and clear to me. I even brought down the volume.

It's very annoying.

Of course, I'm in a quiet environment, not the mall.

[nytemare]

5. It is annoying, isn't it?

Reminds me of Mariah Carey.

[valerief]

10. Ha! I tried it again with the teevee on in the background. It's quite distinct and audible and still

annoying.

[femmocrat]

6. I can't even hear the ringtone on my own cell phone!

No kidding--- when it rings, I wonder where the music is coming from!

I heard nothing on the above link even with volume all the way up, but the graphics were cool.

[LeftyMom]

7. I can hear it just fine, and I'm hard of hearing.

I'm 28 though, so maybe I'm not "adult" enough to not be able to hear it.

[nytemare]

11. You are still a young whippersnapper!

:D

[valerief]

14. Yer a mere tadpole! nt

[smalll]

15. 41 here, can hear it clearly, but it sounds rather quiet to me. /nt

[quakerboy]

18. Thanks. So much

Now I have a temporal headache, and my wife hates me. Thanks so much.

[kentauros]

19. If that one tone did all that,

I can't imagine what a classroom full of teens with that ringtone would do to you :o

[quakerboy]

21. my cousin had it for a while

till he found out all us old bastids could hear it too

[kentauros]

22. They probably think that hearing damage

covers the whole range ;)

It's a good thing, though, that cellphones don't have the power to generate the frequencies needed for infrasonics (sub-sonics.)

[EOTE]

38. Just wait until they miniaturize this thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Bkrypxzs4

Hey, LG has a projector phone, it's only a matter of time before someone makes a rotary subwoofer phone. Maybe it could be programmed to play the brown note every time someone calls you.

[kentauros]

39. I don't think you can miniaturize anything to do with infrasonics

since we're talking about long waves. Miniaturizing ultrasonics is easy because the wavelengths are so short and it doesn't take much energy to produce them. It takes much more energy to produce a long wave.

I don't know if you ever saw one of my complaint threads about the trains near here, but you can hear (and feel) the infrasonics coming from them while they're still about a mile away. It seems to travel down the tracks ahead of those massive diesel engines like an audible Hall Effect ;)

[nytemare]

23. LOL!

Thought he was being sneaky, did he?

:D

[quakerboy]

27. yup.

I cant remember if his mom could hear it or not, but when he found out all his "old"(as compared to his 16 y/o self) cousins could hear it, that was too much and I never heard another word about it.

[nickinSTL]

20. I'm 37 and hear it with no problem.

of course, you might get a better idea of how well you can hear these things at this site:

http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/hearing_test/

The main site sells these ringtones, I guess, but this page allows you to test varying frequencies of ringtone.

I can clearly hear to 15kHz - anything above that I can almost feel, but not exactly hear.

[Odin2005]

44. I can hear all the way to 22 kilohertz!

:woohoo:

[XemaSab]

24. I can hear it, and it's annoying

Haha... the first time I clicked on it I didn't hear a thing, and I was like, oh shit, then I realized the sound on the computer was turned off. :P

[Brickbat]

25. 38 and I can hear it just fine.

[LostInAnomie]

26. Ugh! That's painful.

I'm almost 30 and I heard that loud and clear.

[qnr]

28. Quite clearly n/t

[Rabrrrrrr]

29. Yes, and it's very painful. Like those old security systems that used high frequency sound.

Ouch!

[AsahinaKimi]

30. do you think every dog in the neighborhood yowled ?

And cats probably ran away.

[nytemare]

34. Next time a dog walks around outside, I can test it!

:D

[FloridaJudy]

31. I'm 62 and I can hear it

Annoying bugger.

[mike_c]

32. I can't hear it....

There's a lecture hall where I teach occasionally that has, I'm told, an annoying and distracting high frequency hum coming from the lighting or the AC or something. Students used to HATE classes in that room-- it's been a few years since I used it last-- but I could never hear the noise.

[TZ]

33. Can't hear it.

I guess maybe I should be grateful

[bif]

35. Tried it with my daughter. I couldn't, she could.

She said she couldn't wait until she gets older and can't hear it. I remember hearing the noise from the TV when I was younger. Glad I can't hear that anymore.

[we can do it]

36. Wow After All That Loud Music They Said Would Ruin My Ears

and ambulance/ frire engine sirens at 51 I can hear it.

[dugaresa]

37. who would want that ringtone, its irritating and makes me think that an electrical device is about

to short.

[kentauros]

40. Find a way to can the odor from a burnt out motor or ballast

and spray it at the people that use those ringtones. Then tell them their phone has burnt out :P

[GreenPartyVoter]

41. No, but then I am hearing impaired anyway. I might not have even been able to

hear it as a kid without a hearing aid. (Speaking of annoying sounds. You ever heard a hearing aid when it's battery is dying? :P)

[Odin2005]

42. DAMN YOU, that shit almost gave me autistic sensory overload!

:rofl:

[Capn Sunshine]

43. whatever that was, it touched off a high pitched noise in my head that won't go away

temporary Tinnitus.
Fuck those damn kids.

[nytemare]

45. I did admit that is was irritating.

:D

[S n o w b a l l]

46. Seriously? I could hear it fine...

I had to turn it up full volume if that counts, but I'm 53 and could hear it perfectly.

[hyphenate]

47. Well, I usually can hear many things

but audibly, I couldn't "hear" anything, but a "chittering" noise, like some insects, with "noise." I am still feeling a headache coming on from it.