Highest pitch you can hear
A tone sweeps up to the top of human hearing, one ear at a time. The highest pitches fade first.
How to do it
Keep the volume moderate, and stop if a tone is uncomfortable.
- Put on headphones in a quiet room.
- Play the check tone and set your volume so it's clear but comfortable. Leave it there.
- Test each ear: the tone climbs from 8,000 to 20,000 hertz over 30 seconds. Tap the moment you can't hear it.
Your result
Put on headphones and play the check tone. Set your volume so it's clear but comfortable, then leave it there.
Nothing you enter leaves this page unless you save your result.
What the research found
Hearing fades from the top down: the highest pitches go first with age and loud noise, often long before speech gets hard to follow. This sweep finds where the top of your hearing is in each ear. It isn't a hearing test, which plays the pitches of speech at set loudness, and headphones differ, so use it to compare with yourself. Why hearing matters: the 2024 Lancet Commission on dementia counts untreated hearing loss among the risks that can be changed. In the ACHIEVE trial of 977 older adults with hearing loss, hearing aids and support didn't slow the decline in memory and thinking over three years for the group as a whole, though the effect differed between a higher-risk group and the rest.
Studied in: 977 adults with hearing loss, average age 77, in a hearing aid trial.
- Livingston G et al. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission. Lancet. 2024;404(10452):572-628. PubMed
- Lin FR et al. Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss in the USA (ACHIEVE): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2023;402(10404):786-97. PubMed