Precipitous High-Frequency
Near-typical hearing in the low and mid frequencies, with a steep drop-off in the higher ranges. Low sounds like bass and vowels come through clearly, but high-frequency sounds, consonants, and higher-pitched voices can be nearly inaudible. This pattern appears in some genetic hearing conditions and in advanced noise-induced loss.
Summary
- Pure-tone average (PTA) · Left ear
- 3 dB
- Pure-tone average (PTA) · Right ear
- 3 dB
- Most loss at
- 8 kHz · 90 dB
- Severity
- Mild
Pure-tone average is the quietest tone each ear can just hear, averaged across three pitches central to speech (500 Hz, 1 kHz, and 2 kHz). It’s the single number U.S. audiologists use to sum up an audiogram. 15 dB or lower is typical hearing, and every 10 dB higher means sounds need to be about twice as loud to be heard. Internationally, the World Health Organization averages four pitches, adding 4 kHz, so where high pitches have more loss its number comes out higher.
Degree of the worse ear, averaged over all eight frequencies, on the scale used by U.S. audiologists (ASHA)
Thresholds by frequency
| Hz | L | R |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | 0 | 0 |
| 500 | 0 | 0 |
| 1k | 0 | 0 |
| 2k | 10 | 10 |
| 3k | 35 | 35 |
| 4k | 65 | 65 |
| 6k | 85 | 85 |
| 8k | 90 | 90 |