What is the range of sound frequencies for my laptop's sound card?

My laptop is Thinkpad T400. How can i find out

what its sound card is (find that out under Ubuntu?)
the minimum and maximum frequencies of sound its sound card can produce?

Thanks.

Tim

Posted 2015-06-06T12:38:08.450

Reputation: 12 647

Are you talking about the internal processing frequency or the highest frequency the speakers can produce? – LPChip – 2015-06-06T13:59:03.303

the frequency of sound.....@LPChip – Tim – 2015-06-06T15:25:48.943

I'm sorry, your question can still mean both. internal processing frequency or the speaker frequency ? – LPChip – 2015-06-06T15:38:59.617

If you meant the sound directly from the laptop, then internal processing frequency? I also have earbuds – Tim – 2015-06-06T15:42:13.743

A soundcard has an internal processing frequency (ability to mix sound upto a certain frequency, calling resampling) which is completely different than the highest note the speakers can produce. Your statement "I also have earbuds" make me think you mean the highest note a soundcard can produce, which is not the internal processing frequency. Can you confirm? – LPChip – 2015-06-06T16:14:01.167

I don't know. I am trying to do this hearing test http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/can-you-hear-this-hearing-test/, but a comment there said "I recommend that no one takes this test seriously unless you have a really decent soundcard/headset wich ensures this test it’s full quality." I have T400, and usually play sound directly out of it, but also sometimes use earbuds

– Tim – 2015-06-06T16:38:23.390

Thanks for that comment. You confirmed my suspicions. I'll write you an answer accordingly. – LPChip – 2015-06-06T16:40:28.447

Answers

Soundcards have a mixing frequency that is at its worst a lot higher than the build-in speakers or headphones. So the question becomes, what is the minimum and maximum frequencies the speakers or headphones can produce?

Even if your laptop is the best of the best, its speakers will be crap. No hard feelings, but they're not reliable or accurate enough.

That means you'll have to rely on headphones. Your headphones specification will tell you if you can use it for a hearing test. Given that a hearing test often is about the highest frequencies and not the lowest, almost all headphones will work, given that they usually play up to 16khz and higher, which is the range you want to test for anyway. In-ear headphones will have a higher range than over-ear headphones unless they're more expensive.

So long story short, use ear-buds and refer to their specifications to see if it'll work. Also, if the test is on youtube, note that due to mp3 compression, the maximum frequency might not be reached, and thus you may hear lower frequencies than the movie says being heard.

LPChip

Posted 2015-06-06T12:38:08.450

Reputation: 42 190

-1

That depends on your sampling frequency. Many sound cards work with 44.1 KHz sampling frequency that gives you frequencies of up to 22KHz but if you have a more professional card, they use 48KHz sampling frequency, that means you gonna have up to 24KHz of highs... No more than that, but remember that our ears can barely hear more than 18K, so it's ok those ranges!

Alberto Villalobos

Posted 2015-06-06T12:38:08.450

Reputation: 1