No its not a hearing issue, as the bell is only 24" from my bedroom window, and the panel is only 24" from the window, so could not be any closer, its more like you say it is far to easy to play with the settings sat in front of the PC.
the bell and stobe are now working on the test, while waiting l looked at AREA TIMERS & OPTIONS , and noticed that under areas (9) did not have area A BELL AND STROBE OUTPUT assigned to it