Check how high you can still hear

The job

Pure tones at fixed frequencies (125Hz through 18kHz) play one at a time; you answer heard or not. Your highest heard frequency is a rough map of your top-end hearing — the number teenagers hear and adults lose.

Quiet room, modest volume

Use headphones, set volume comfortable at 1kHz first — the test's loudness is relative and the frequencies are the variable. The test walks up the staircase; answer honestly, the result is only as good as the quietest 'yes'.

• Frequencies above ~15kHz separate age groups — most adults over 40 don't hear 17kHz.
• A frequency you can feel rather than hear (bass) still counts as heard — the test tracks hearing, not sensation.

What it isn't

This is a ceiling check, not an audiogram — it doesn't measure thresholds in dB or per-ear differences, and it can't diagnose hearing loss. For that, an audiologist's booth is the real instrument. Nothing is recorded or sent anywhere.