High End Audio and Your hearing as you get older

Djohson54,

I was being facetious. No, make that snarky since I don't believe test tones are the end all when it comes to measurements on what and how we hear. You are right that with a great set of headphones, I could narrow down the actual limits to my 'hearing' of test tones but when it comes to music and all the harmonics inherent in music, those test tones can be set aside.

At 56, my hearing ability has suffered as evidenced by my inability, at times, to hear someone talking directly to me in a noisy environment. But put me in front of a system and all bets are off concerning the limits of my hearing. Just like speed reading is nothing more than training the muscles of the eyes to focus on a larger portion of the page, one's hearing acuity is improved over time and with practice. We hear things about 50 milliseconds before we see things when they are less than about 10 meters from us. Our hearing developed long before our vision did all those many years ago. We react faster to sound when startled. Sensitivity to sound decreases as we age but acuity can and does improve. All it takes is a 'hint' of the sound and our brains fill in the rest.

Unsound,
I believe I didn't explain it correctly and misled you. Its not great gaps in my hearing that my brain is filing in. That point was to illustrate a bigger level of impairment which I don't have. You are spot on with the remainder: the levels of enjoyment, though different for all, are all capable of growth and refinement.

Wow, now I'm going to sell all my equipment as I "can't" hear anything from 14Khz on up. But there is more to test signals than that. There has to be. I can hear instruments that play at higher frequencies on a regular basis but can't hear the friggin test tones. What's weird is that even on a low setting, the 8Khz test tone hurt my ears while the 12 Khz test tone was soft and really nothing beyond that.
I know this opens a huge can of worms but this goes a long way against the argument that only what can be measured is the sole criteria. So many flat earthers stick to their measurements with a fanaticism that borders on religion and yet I can hear things that I shouldn't.

Unsound,
I stand corrected. And humbly so. A quick look at some graphs clearly shows that only the pipe organ can play a fundamental frequency to about 15Khz!
Everything else barely hits 5Khz. But it's the harmonics that can extend things to beyond 16Khz. In music they always will since no one plays only test tones. Considering that, was I so far off or am I missing something?

On another note, I came across another graph showing that hand claps, footsteps, keys jingling, cymbals, piccolos, clarinets, bass tubas and female voices all knocking on the 15Khz door. Maybe I'm just hearing part of them in recordings or not, but if one were to limit the output of a speaker to just 15Khz, wouldn't I be missing something? There are the over and under harmonic overtones, echos, and ambience.

I'm content in knowing that although I've lost an appreciable amount of my hearing compared to when I was younger, I'm enjoying this hobby a hell of lot more and learning more as well.

Yes, you're right. Here are the graphs and it wasn't a typo:
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58868

I think I just may get my hearing tested to see where the gaps are.

This exchange we've had makes me wonder if we've all been mistakenly mislead in our appreciation of certain things audio. A lot of reviewers cite HF rolloff or softening at the high end when it appears a lot could be occurring in the upper mids. Think of all that wasted money on diamond encrusted tweeters and crossovers in the most sensitive area to our ears.

It may explain why I like widebanders augmented by supertweeters best.