Sensitive ears and electronics.

Post Reply New Topic

My aunt's TV still made a sound even when it was turned off and it was some motor thing but I could easily tune it out. But that was the only time I ever heard it.

I thought so too until I started hearing at age 21 that how human hearing gets weaker as we get older. I first learned about mosquito tones and I could hear them and the higher ones with headphones on. So I started asking if they can hear TVs and lot of people said no and lot of people said yes so I knew it was half and half. I even asked online and that was when someone said it's at the edge of the normal hearing range. Everyone has different levels of hearing so some can. I also wondered if all kids could hear TVs and then can't as they get older. I asked my mom about it and she said she couldn't hear them and never had. So I figured it had to do with hearing range.

When I was a child I had to leave TV showrooms because the screeching of those cathode ray tube monitors was too much. I could stand at the front door of a house and hear whether there was a TV on indoors.

Now, with LCDs and plasma screens, I don't get that any more.

Instead, I have problems with equipment containing WIFI circuitry. Even with the WIFI disabled they give me a feeling of my skull being squeezed. Had to give up my new Android phone because of it, which disappointed me greatly.

I know the componet in the TV that creates the high pitch noise it is the thing that puts a charge in the Screen. My Parents have a TV that they by mistake leave on with nothing doing input for Video and it bugs me because I can hear the componet

Flyback Transformer
http://www.electronicrepairguide.com/flyback1.jpg

My husband and child can "hear" the electricity. My child asks me "can you hear it?" But I cannot. But she can do it at will. Maybe thats part of the problem with the electronic appliances. Maybe you can hear the electricity, too.

It depends on what it is. I can hear the old TVs, and oftentimes the older plasma TVs give off the 'whine.'

Flourescent lights give off the whine when they start going bad, so I can't stand those either.

I have this issue to.

The "electric hum" many can hear is caused by dust getting into electronics.

While not enough to short things out, high voltage components have minuscule amounts of electricity "arcing" within the machine from contact to contact. Not enough to make a direct spark, but the dust in the air promotes small amounts of electron transfer by jumping across the dust in the air. This creates a high-pitch vibration in the air that many do hear, but some are really sensitive to.

I used to cover all TVs and CRT monitors I owned with a towel when not in use to minimize how much dust would get into them to prevent this problem from developing.

I used to shop at a grocery store that had a cash register that made a horrendous high-pitched whining sound. Apparently, I was the only one who was bugged by it though. I could hear it from 5-6 feet away. I avoided going to that line even if it had fewer customers waiting.

I can still hear some high-pitched sounds. We have a computer that can also be annoying (not as bad as the one above). But if nothing else is turned on, it does stand out. Not pleasant but not horrible either. If my hearing were better, I probably wouldn't be able to tolerate it at all. I have taken that hearing test...the one with the high pitched mosquito sound that teens like....can't hear those at all. I would say that's a good thing.

I have can from devices that purposely make the high pitch noises like Ultra Sonic Pest repealer were I live McDonalds have 2 of those for there Kids PLayground since the playground is not enclosed. My grandpa had one of those for his garden and I could hear it from across of the street when I use to live at my dads.

Yes; the flyback emits the horizontal oscillator sound at 15.750 kHz. It's actually created earlier in the circuitry, but the flyback is amplifying it and vibrating it's iron core at that frequency, which is what we hear.

The other noises that electronics make when turned off; TVs included, comes from the "standby" supply. That's a tiny version of a flyback transformer, which is as I described in my earlier post, part of a switchmode power supply. If they start to whine, at a lower pitch than the famous TV flyback horizontal noise, that means that most probably a capacitor is starting to fail, and is causing the switchmode transformer to vibrate. In that case, it's going to blow out in the foreseeable future, as it can't sustain that extra pulse for long. A quiet buzz, however, is normal for most plug-in power supply adaptors and most electronic devices which run on (or get batteries charged by) household electricity. The acoustics of the room can help or hurt a lot! Try just moving the item to a different spot in the room, or even just turning it's direction slightly. But of course don't ever hide any electrical device in a blanket or pillow to hush it, or your next sound might be a fire siren .

Charles

I don't know if we're talking about the same game, I think the one I know is fairly new, and also it's not really a win or lose type of game. http://www.minecraft.net/

I can hear better with headphones too, I really prefer them to speakers.. I mean it's right on your ear, so of course it's easier to hear, right? :3

That is true but I can even hear them when they are new The only one that I can't hear which is nice is one in a Portable TV when I mean portable I am Talking about portable.
Panasonic Travelvision

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/panasonic_ ... p_1m1.html

Do you guys at time goes on seem to get used to the annoying sounds and they don't seem to bother you anymore?

I get use to it some times but it depends on the pitch of the sound.

That little '80s Panasonic TV has an ferrite core flyback, and wouldn't tend to resonate to make the noise. Also, the whole high voltage supply is inside a tin box, and is totally sealed. They do that because the whole TV is jampacked into that tiny case, and the power supply, if not fully shielded, would cause interference with the rest of the TV circuitry so close. I have a few of those 1.5" Panasonics in my TV "collection", including a color version.

The loudest flybacks were in the 1950s black & white TV sets, with large exposed high voltage power supplies (flyback barely shielded and not encased). I can still hear those, from outside the house. And I can also hear the vertical oscillator which sounds like a very soft snore.

Charles

Last edited by kx250rider on 25 May 2011, 11:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

ohh color nice.

I got mine for free.

I eventually want to replace my big CRT TV with a LCD TV

Last edited by markitzero on 25 May 2011, 11:52 am, edited 1 time in total.