Bernie is being honest, not spinning anything. What he’s talking about is pushing the mids for radio limiters of the day and not too much low end for older turntables and the cartridges of the day, plus limited speaker response below 100 hz. Add those up and Aja is a mid forward record with a lot of room to grow. Short enough in length to get much better on modern vinyl with all the skills learned in 45 years What’s great about Aja was never the mastering it was always everything else, and I’m very happy he’s had this opportunity to do it again, full beans for modern time, putting his name on it once and for all.
As to his age ... hearing loss has 0% impact on listening skill. As the hearing goes away the brain compensates and the skill portion that matters most is always going up, we hope! So his age is a non factor. If age was a factor young females would be the best engineers, as they have the best measurable hearing.
P.S. If you are interested in how mastering alters things here is an opinion on Aja digitally that I did for myself during the pandemic, using the 80s CD as a basis.
Do not share or sell. This is for educational purposes only, referencing the digital (CD) version of the original (LP) work.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ewryuajc58j4dpz0t06og/h?rlkey=43h8t7huoafmw8rlyoxb4vps3&dl=0
Send me a PM that you grabbed the data files.