Aging ears and Nuances
I spoke to and older audio buddy of mine and he made a full 180 on his nice tube gear and just went with lower cost streamer that can also be used as a preamp. He says he doesn’t hear much above 11.5k. My tests let me hear up to about 13.5k but I’m able to hear even subtle differences between tube amps etc quite easily even though most of the music is in lower frequencies of the spectrum regardless. Does anyone here find themselves experiencing a more difficult time appreciating the nuances with their age? And has it affected the choices you have made with gear, not being as picky?
"To macg19. Standard hearing tests go to 8kHz - so how are you and @billstevenson getting tested to 13.5K? (tagging jourdoktorn on this question too)" In our clinic we only use audiometers from 250 Hz to 8 KHz but in my research I use professional instruments from 50 to 20.000 Hz. |
Interesting discussion. I am 66 and feel I am only getting better at listening to and distinguishing subtle differences in music and music reproduction systems even as my hearing acuity in general has declined some - evidenced by greater difficulty following conversations in noisy echoing environments. This both due to greater experience and the fact that the spectrum of most reproduced music occurs below 10kHz. Only violins and cymbals extend much above 10kHz for acoustic instruments. The bulk of the important information is in the midrange, and if timing is your thing - it’s all there. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3088642/ kn PS - plus one for using care with headphone volume levels.
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@jourdoktorn Thanks. |
"Sounds good enough" gets tossed around a bunch in my listening room nowadays. Just turned 60, hearing up to about 13K, and the mundane idiotic minutia of minute differences in sound quality (which used to get my pecker up) bore me to tears anymore. But I still love the hell out of music and enjoy it the same, which is good. |
@rankaudio If your friend has been subjected to a lot of loud noise all their life, and has some serious loss of sound, then maybe, but loss of upper frequencies and nuances, um, maybe he's just tired of dealing with equipment, or was not as hardcore an audiophile as you thought. Or, perhaps other things in his life may take precedence over stereo equipment. I could see that. |
