Golden Ears?

LOL, soon each member would need to carry a "system card" and a "hearing card" before allowing to opine. Then I'm sure somebody will be pushing an electrical or sound engineering degree requirement! 😄

Just a few more comments on this thread, some of which have been touched on before.  There tends to be an assumption that age related hearing loss is about losing top end - which it is - but not exclusively. It also involves losing midrange in the 2-4k region.

There is significant information in high frequencies, especially in perceiving air and space, but most musically significant information is below 10kHz - which includes the fundamentals of all acoustic musical instruments and most of their significant harmonics.

That is partly why standard audiograms don't measure above 8kHz

So midrange hearing loss is far more problematic than loss of top end.

+1 mikelavigne   I believe the capability of a system to be extended and articulate in frequency impacts ton the lower registers. A trickle down that works.

Hey, I am 74 and have learned to fool myself at times.

@yoyoyaya 

that is a consoling thought, and as I suspect many of us are in the same boat, it is a popular sentiment here.  As with many things audio, it is a subjective opinion that cannot be proven or disproved.  Still, I have to believe that one can only sustain before the critical listening facility has permanently been altered.  Hopefully I’m not there yet

@OP, regardng your difficulty hearing flutes, this may be because depending on how it's played, a flute can get pretty close to a pure sine wave i.e. it has few harmonics. A piano is the diametric opposite so even if you have a loss in a particular frequency range, you will still hear more of the piano's sound.

Re the question in the post, critical listening ability is a learned skill and it takes a lot of hearing damage to negate it. Or put conversely, full bandwidth hearing ability does not correlate with a capacity to listen critically.

The most important  impediment related to age is not hertz resolution by the ears nor erectile performance it is the closing of the mind in ready made opinions ...

These ready made opinions can affect hearing and erectile functions too ...

@mikelavigne 

Hows about 8 kHz. The term is presbycusis. Medicine does not consider hearing loss to be significant until it affects frequencies below 8 kHz which can affect speech perception. Many older audiophiles have virtually nothing above 12 kHz and they do not even notice any loss. I find it interesting that many Sound Labs owners love the Atma-Sphere MA 2. Because of it's highish output impedance the speakers roll of rapidly over 12 kHz and the owners  do not seem to notice. The midrange and midbass are glorious but there is a distinct lack of sparkle. You'll hear the sound described as dark. 

At any rate, the enjoyment of music should not change, if you really enjoy music. If it has to sound just so, you might be in trouble. But, there are other aspects of aging that I find more difficult to accommodate to. First and foremost is erectile performance.  

Sorry for your loss.

Small amounts of hearing loss (most often in the very high frequencies) to a very experienced listener have very little impact on enjoyment and skills in assessing audio systems. My female partner has always had better hearing than myself. The primary difference was that she did not enjoy listening the very high frequency hash in solid state systems decades ago.

Yep, we all lose some HF as we age. Some fix it with hearing aids, some with tone controls, some just adjust their system set up. All work to some degree. But, FWIW, a good headphone system, for me, is far more feasible. With my main system I note the loss of HF clearly and it diminishes the music as well as the sense of spaciousness. But not so much, if at all, with my headphone system, which does not (!) reduce the music to a more mono signal. I get good channel separation, and while it's not as good as I used to hear my speaker system, presently it is not only better, it really allows me to get lost in the music. But the key, I think, is that it is a headphone system, not just plugging any headphone into a component. FWIW.  

there is a physiological aspect to listening, which results in diminished high frequency audibility as we age. but there is also a learning aspect to music listening with more practice. and the process and refining of listening critically is something that can be improved.

yes; maybe at 60 or 70 we lose above 15k hz or 12k hz or even 10k hz, but it’s interesting that even at that age we can somehow tell whether the musical signal extends up to 40khz or just 20khz. we don’t actually hear it regardless, but we hear the effects of it in overtones and balance at lower frequencies. or maybe our other senses are able to tell, just the vibration in our bodies? don’t know exactly why, but i do experience this.

so yes as we age we lose things, but also can gain things. and our ability to sense things we don’t obviously hear directly is part of our evolution as a species.

so no reason to over think how our hearing varies. there is just too much going on to focus on it. to me it's an enjoyment question, making our lives better......and keep doing it if it's fun.

Really?

I have the audio components that I do because I enjoy them, and they sound excellent together. At least in my opinion.

I really couldn't care less how my hearing measures, nor (honestly) how your hearing measures.

Buy what you want and enjoy what you have. 

You do what’s best for You!

With all due respect Worrying about other people systems / opinions is really just 

a waste of time.