The New York Times gets played with a silly story that claims kids have found a new ring tone that is so high-pitched that old farts teachers can’t hear it:
“When I heard about it I didn’t believe it at first,” said Donna Lewis, a technology teacher at the Trinity School in Manhattan. “But one of the kids gave me a copy, and I sent it to a colleague. She played it for her first graders. All of them could hear it, and neither she nor I could.”
The technology, which relies on the fact that most adults gradually lose the ability to hear high-pitched sounds, was developed in Britain but has only recently spread to America — by Internet, of course.
Sure. I’m over 50 and have spent years sitting too close to the PA system at rock ’n’ roll concerts and I can hear this annoying high-pitched noise just fine.
Ed Bott 
I can’t hear it very well, but it does hurt my ears.
Yes, but did you try hearing the tone in a classroom environment? I suspect that the ambient noise could make it more difficult for a teacher to hear when they aren’t paying attention.
I can hear it just fine, but my husband couldn’t hear it at all.
What happend to just setting your phone on vibrate?
I can’t hear it. 33 yr MWM
Loud & clear.
I can hear it very plainly using Winamp. There must be several floating around. I found at least three(2 mp3 and 1 wav). Two I can hear and one I cannot. The one I can’t was a “wav” file named 17KHz.wav. I placed the two I could hear with Winamp on my Motorola v400 and cannot hear either. Strange!
I can make out a very slight buzzing noise, but that’s it.
27 and as deaf as a post.
The New York Times article’s file is easy to hear. It is only 15 KHz.
I think the real thing is 17Khz. You can hear that here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/audio/mosquito_sound.mp3
I am 27 and can hear the real one if I turn the volume up, but otherwise can’t.
You can “see” the 17KHz tone if you play it via Windows Media Player by selecting “Bars” in the “Bars and Waves” options. “Bars” is basically a spectrum display, kind of neat. The tone is legit, no “Emperor” here! You will “see” the 17KHz tone on the right side of the display. Enjoy, see how “old” your ears are…
[audio src="http://www.jetcityorange.com/toys/17KHz.wav" /]
that is the real one mp3 encoding cuts the frequency down to 15khz
The method you use to listen to the high frequency sound is a HUGE factor as well. The device that is playing the file may not reproduce 17khz very well. You need professional headphones for perfect resolution. Compression, such as mp3, also degrades the signal, making it that much more difficult to hear. Take a poor 17khz sound file, compress it, and play it on crap headphones and an embryo wouldnt be able to hear it. As tim notes above…..
Actually, its the fact that the sound is a high frequency that makes it difficult for adults to hear it.
If mp3 encoding reduces it to 15khz (a lower frequency than 17khz), chances are more adults will hear it.
I asked my mum to listen to the tone she is 38 years old she heard it perfectly
im 17 and hear it perfectly however my mum 46 cannot hear it but my nan 75 can also hear it quite clearly
I’m 16 and I can hear it but I notice a buzzing sound too. My dad says he can hear it when the volume is turned up but I think he just hears the buzzing. Maybey it’s just wishful thinking. I tried playing it through some high quality speakers using a WAV format and I did’t hear the buzzin sound. I haven’t tried it on my dad yet.
I have heard other tones that are higher pitched and I can’t hear them but young bucks can (I’m an aged 35). Perhaps this one is handicapped for us geriatrics.