[xvector]

Same for me. Remember the noise since I was a small child. Always thought it was normal. Hearing tests consistently come back perfect.

But yeah, hearing tests cover a very tiny portion of the spectrum. Audiology, in this regards, seems to be completely divorced from the frequencies people hear in real life. In reality, the vast majority of hearing tests barely cover the frequency range of human voice - let alone frequency ranges for music or even tinnitus.

I asked my audiologist if it might be possible to cover a wider range of frequencies and she seemed flabbergasted that someone would even request such a thing.

So, yeah. If you have tinnitus, or music isn't sounding as nice to you anymore, or for some reason bass frequencies sound off - well, you won't find out with a traditional hearing test.

[antognini]

I'm not exactly sure which tests you've gotten. It may be the case that the audiologist will only test a few frequencies for someone who is likely to have good hearing. But if you are fitted for hearing aids they will test a range of frequencies from 100 Hz to 8000 Hz.

Almost all cases of hearing loss have hearing loss at high frequencies, so they may be able to screen you by just checking at higher frequencies. As far as I know, losing bass frequencies first only comes from specific conditions like Meniere's disease.

[pas]

8K seems too low. Sure at 20K you wouldn't hear anything, but there's still a lot of potential to hear a low level hum at let's say 13K which drives you mad.