At Costco, for an extra $60, you can get custom molded earpieces instead of domes.
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?
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78 year old here. I certainly have modest hearing loss & slight tinnitus in my left ear. I have taken advantage of the increased excellence in headphone listening. With top notch gear I can hear nuance, tonal shades, and spatial qualities. Headphone listening is a benefit for us old guys with loss of hearing acuity. |
Dear Mashif, being a medical specialist in ENT, You are so right! We have a "musical memory". You need to have listened for several years to for example acusic music to learn to rember the special spectrum of frequences that identify each instrument. When you get older and start to loose the upper frequences, your brain only need to hear the caracteristics of a part of the full spectrum of a special instrument to recognise it and fill in the missing frequences. This is natures way of letting us enjoy our music up through our age. Electronic music however can vary in so many ways making it much more difficult to find a special spectrum of freqwuences for the "instrument"to remember. You also need to deal with these facts when judging the HiFi reviews from eldery experienced HiFi experts. Are they really hearing all frequences or is the brain adding more or less...? |
"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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