Aging ears and Nuances

My high frequency hearing isn't as good as it was when I was young, but I can still hear the most critical music ranges quite well.  In my 60s, even with less than youthful hearing I am a more experienced and patient listener and am more adept at identifying nuance and subtle changes than when I was young.  

There is an awful lot more to music reproduction than high frequency bandwidth.  In my experience you can enjoy quality music reproduction and hear subtle component differences as you age despite a gradual loss of high frequency hearing.

As other posters have noted, with experience you also learn to be a better listener.

I believe our brains retain the experiences of listening in our younger years and "fill in" the missing frequency information even when our ears no longer detect them. We know what full range music sounds like and that knowledge is recalled by the overall sound such that we don't notice the missing frequencies.

At 75 even more capable to detecting nuance on a good system at least in base, mid and much of highs. One thing that I think has happened with age is an ever-increasing sensitivity to distortion. This happens in music systems but also on TV, movies, and loud places such as restaurants. Much if it is but sub-liminal, but if you want to know if your system is clean and clear, natural, un-electronic ask an old duffer.

I'm 74 and have worn hearing aids for the past 20 years or so; main problem was loss of high-frequencies; being hard-of-hearing runs in the family. As mashif says, our brains 'fill in' missing info, and hearing aids with audiologists setting the EQ, just make it that much easier for my brain to do so. I can even do a little EQ adjustment myself on them.