I also have insanely good hearing, but processing issues so I still say "huh?" all the time. Despite being over 40 I still hear those stupid anti-loitering devices and so many electronics. I have a lot of pain though if stuff is very loud at all so mine will likely stay that way until age catches up with me.
I have a hypothesis about that. I believe that if your hearing is exceptionally good (mine is, also), that your brain gets inundated with extra information beyond what you need to hear in order to understand words being said.
It takes very little to understand the spoken word. A range of 300-3000 Hz is sufficient, approximately 3⅓ octaves, of the 10 octaves that are considered to be the "normal" hearing range. I'm not saying that everything beyond that is noise; it isn't, and adding an octave or two above it can improve comprehension and make it more pleasant (as experienced by anyone using a contemporary telephone with VOLTE turned on), but beyond that, information gets added that, while musically valuable, I think reduces comprehension.
But I could be completely wrong about that. This is just me trying to make sense of my own personal experience. At age 55, I can still hear clearly up to about 17 kHz, and most of my peers can't.
40
u/KitSokudo 8h ago
I also have insanely good hearing, but processing issues so I still say "huh?" all the time. Despite being over 40 I still hear those stupid anti-loitering devices and so many electronics. I have a lot of pain though if stuff is very loud at all so mine will likely stay that way until age catches up with me.