New Sound Blaster AE-9 and AE-7 audiophile sound cards coming soon

[kokakolia]

10 hours ago, mr moose said:

I don't know what it's like where you are, but those guys are around here too,  some audiologists are just cashing in on the workplace fear mongering, they drive a van or motor home into the factory and charge a small fee to test everyone (gives the owner a tick to say he's actively doing shit about noise), They don;t care about accurate results.  The rest are only concerned with day to day functioning, they are bulk billers and often work within hospitals (slightly better equipment).     The one I saw was literally decades ago (back in the early 90's) and I haven't found one since, hence why I said earlier that most audiologists don't test above 20K.

I dunno. I was happy last year when I got my ears tested at work. I worked on quads and snowmobiles all year round and these things are noisy AF. In addition, some of the job sites I went to were very noisy as well. 

[mr moose]

24 minutes ago, kokakolia said:

I dunno. I was happy last year when I got my ears tested at work. I worked on quads and snowmobiles all year round and these things are noisy AF. In addition, some of the job sites I went to were very noisy as well. 

All I meant was that the shitty ones aren't the most accurate, not that they aren't important.  If you get the same guy with the same gear every year then you can at least do a comparison and see if your hearing changes, but that's it really.

 

I value my hearing quite a lot,  So do the bands I work with (funnily enough),  a good test at least biannually is important for me.

[kokakolia]

1 minute ago, mr moose said:

All I meant was that the shitty ones aren't the most accurate, not that they aren't important.  If you get the same guy with the same gear every year then you can at least do a comparison and see if your hearing changes, but that's it really.

 

I value my hearing quite a lot,  So do the bands I work with (funnily enough),  a good test at least biannually is important for me.

That’s an interesting point. When I did my test the conclusion was “my hearing is good”. Which didn’t say much. And I know that my hearing isn’t the best. Well, it’s average I suppose...

[Bcat00]

Never been much of a sound guy but guess the market isn’t completely gone.

[jasonvp]

11 hours ago, mr moose said:

I don't know what it's like where you are, but those guys are around here too,

I think they see my grey hair and just naturally assume I'm having trouble hearing.  It puts them in the "sell this guy hearing aids!" mindset.  Never mind that I can almost hear a dog whistle.  Ultimately I don't think they're equipped with the right headphones or sound gear to accurately hit the higher freqs, mostly because they don't need it.

 

[mr moose]

4 minutes ago, jasonvp said:

I think they see my grey hair and just naturally assume I'm having trouble hearing.  It puts them in the "sell this guy hearing aids!" mindset.  Never mind that I can almost hear a dog whistle.  Ultimately I don't think they're equipped with the right headphones or sound gear to accurately hit the higher freqs, mostly because they don't need it.

 

It does seem to be one of those industries that isn't very well regulated, once you have the qualification no one seems to care what  tools you use or how you test.  

 

Given most of audiologists operate only to determine if you can hear within the normal scope and that your hearing hasn't been damaged they do not need to worry about freq. above 18Khz.  If people are interested in those they will have to undergo some pretty stringent testing.  In order to gauge that they need very good room isolation, extremely accurate headphones and the ability to reproduce pure wave forms without sub harmonics.  Such equipment and time is way beyond the average audiologist and not something likely to  generate enough income to warrant the expense.

 

 

[vogelspinnen]

I got my surround setup for my AE-9! Post here.

 

Damn 5.1 is really something for gaming, I would say the last time I had such a pleasurable increase in immersion for gaming and movies is switching to 21:9 from 16:9.

 

[AnonymousGuy]

On 7/25/2019 at 2:48 AM, mr moose said:

It does seem to be one of those industries that isn't very well regulated, once you have the qualification no one seems to care what  tools you use or how you test.  

 

Given most of audiologists operate only to determine if you can hear within the normal scope and that your hearing hasn't been damaged they do not need to worry about freq. above 18Khz.  If people are interested in those they will have to undergo some pretty stringent testing.  In order to gauge that they need very good room isolation, extremely accurate headphones and the ability to reproduce pure wave forms without sub harmonics.  Such equipment and time is way beyond the average audiologist and not something likely to  generate enough income to warrant the expense.

 

 

When I got my hearing checked out, I was in a sound isolated room where it's suspended from the floor, double wall 3" thick, anechoic, etc.  I had 3 tests done, the usual left/right frequency response up to something like 15khz where both my ears were balanced.  A bone conduction version of the test where the headphones are behind your ears.  And a tympanometer test to make sure there wasn't fluid in my middle ears.   I passed every test despite me noticing my left is worse than my right slightly, "below clinical threshold" is a new term I learned from it.  (I guess 4 tests if you count visually checking for obstructions in the canal)

 

[mr moose]

19 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

When I got my hearing checked out, I was in a sound isolated room where it's suspended from the floor, double wall 3" thick, anechoic, etc.  I had 3 tests done, the usual left/right frequency response up to something like 15khz where both my ears were balanced.  A bone conduction version of the test where the headphones are behind your ears.  And a tympanometer test to make sure there wasn't fluid in my middle ears.   I passed every test despite me noticing my left is worse than my right slightly, "below clinical threshold" is a new term I learned from it.  (I guess 4 tests if you count visually checking for obstructions in the canal)

 

 

That iso chamber sounds quite elaborate for a basic hearing test.  Still, at least hey are being accurate. 

[Mike90504]

n/a

[RejZoR]

Say hello to my little friend. I also gave it a little... facelift. That quad array of OPAMPs are top of the line MUSES. Because when you go crazy, why not go all the way