Evil Genius

http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/at ... enbuzz.mp3

its a high frequency buzzing sound. you are counted as young if you can and old if you cannot.
=)

My mom heard it.... Though at first she claimed it sounded like a phone ringing. So I dont know.

your mom is not over 50 i guess.
my mom could not hear a thing.

its a high frequency sound that older people cannot hear. i heard a report on this in the news some time ago but i never really heard the real deal before.

Interesting I guess, but what is the reason for this to happen exactly? Why can't old people hear high-frequency sound in particular?

I would think as you age, your hearing goes down but for all frequencies.

Especially when you are from the Walkman generation

those interested can look up the term "presbycusis".
i got the link from this article: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showSto ... cleID=6350

many people now have that as their cellphone ringtone, annoying i must say.

That noise hurt me.

I could hear it with headphones, but not with my pc speakers.

When it's loud it's annoying as hell. No one besides myself in my family can hear it.
But it doesn't sound much unlike the noise most electronic devices make.

Actually its a new invention made by a French dude. You see, they put devices in busy area's like streets with lots of shops. By this they intend to scare away the delinquents that bully old people by ringing this awfully irritating sound that only youngsters can hear. I heard this thing works very good.

what happens if some young guy if accompanying his grandparents?

panasonic wrote:what happens if some young guy if accompanying his grandparents?

Well, the shop owners can put on/off the sound whenever they want. So if they see some young customers, they'll most likely put it off. Btw, this sound is only very annoying after 10 minutes.

My old CRT monitor would make that sound if there was too much white onscreen (i.e. all too often). As a temporary fix I could at least give it a smack, but in the end it overpowered me and forced me to buy a new monitor before I gouged my eyes out from the insanity

What frequency was that at?

There are problems with trying these sound tests on a normal computer. Your sound system may not be able to handle such a high frequency. If that's the case, the speakers will output a distorted version of said frequency so you may think you are hearing it when you are actually hearing a different frequency. A lot of normal speakers aren't designed to go very high since most humans can only hear in a select range.

Basically, you have to make sure you're sound system is gonna output the correct frequency b4 you take this sound test seriously.

winamp says its at 48khz.
my mp3s play at 44khz so the difference is not that great.

the point is that my parents could not hear a thing but me and my sister could.

so it works.

Quest wrote:winamp says its at 48khz.
my mp3s play at 44khz so the difference is not that great.

Bzzzt! First, human hearing ranges from 20 to 20,000 hertz, so 44/48 kHz is over double the max. Second, that's the sample rate. 44.1 kHz is the sample rate for CDs, hence why your mp3s are at that rate, 48 kHz is rarer (can only get it from DVD-As and such).

The frequency is likely at least 15 kHz, if not 17 or 18. Most sound systems can cover the human range, how well I have no idea.

that sound is the most horrible noise i've ever heard.... god.... my ears felt like they were going to burst... wtf wast that?

arke wrote:

Quest wrote:winamp says its at 48khz.
my mp3s play at 44khz so the difference is not that great.

Bzzzt! First, human hearing ranges from 20 to 20,000 hertz, so 44/48 kHz is over double the max. Second, that's the sample rate. 44.1 kHz is the sample rate for CDs, hence why your mp3s are at that rate, 48 kHz is rarer (can only get it from DVD-As and such).

The frequency is likely at least 15 kHz, if not 17 or 18. Most sound systems can cover the human range, how well I have no idea.

ah...

thanks for the correction and explanation, arke.
=)

sortep,
its "teen-repellent". but the teens themselves use that sound as a ringtone as well.