-
WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
No, Aging Does NOT Disqualify You From Being an Audiophile
- Thread starter TippyDi
- Start date
Indeed, loving and understanding music does not deteriorate with age. Hearing ability does, but can be compensated to some extent using tone control aka EQ and listening at higher volume. Most of the musical information is anyway below 8 kHz.
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2019
- Messages
- 12,194
- Likes
- 17,253
Can we try to not just create threads by linking to another site please?
Lets at least add some context and opinion to the OP , or a TLDR.
Thanks
TLDR is something like "you can still identify yourself as an audiophile even if your hearing is not what it used to be".
No disagreements here, one can identify as an audiophile (or a dragon) even if one is stone deaf. And as the standard audiophile claims hearing things that don't exists as far as human hearing goes, losing some of one's objective hearing ability isn't that big of a deal.
Of course if we start slitting hairs then having your hearing capped at 8kHz will cause some loss of credibility when assessing finer details in upper treble, but that really doesn't change anything as far as reviews go.
No disagreements here, one can identify as an audiophile (or a dragon) even if one is stone deaf. And as the standard audiophile claims hearing things that don't exists as far as human hearing goes, losing some of one's objective hearing ability isn't that big of a deal.
Of course if we start slitting hairs then having your hearing capped at 8kHz will cause some loss of credibility when assessing finer details in upper treble, but that really doesn't change anything as far as reviews go.
unpluggged
Addicted to Fun and Learning
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2023
- Messages
- 983
- Likes
- 1,228
You say "audiophile" like it's a good thing.
MattHooper
Master Contributor
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2019
- Messages
- 9,305
- Likes
- 15,341
I was watching a presentation to an audiophile Society on YouTube comprised of probably around 12 to 14 audiophiles.
If being old meant you couldn’t be an audiophile, that society would’ve been essentially empty. It was almost all gray hair and people who looked like they were enjoying retirement.
If being old meant you couldn’t be an audiophile, that society would’ve been essentially empty. It was almost all gray hair and people who looked like they were enjoying retirement.
For what I'm guessing is a rectangular room they have the speaker setup a bit crooked.
as with every passion, there is a didactic part (study and curiosity) that always keeps you young, and a practical part: it is not said that when you are old it is completely enjoyable, but it is not a problem, the important thing in life is to continue doing and growing... so: do not worry about the age as the average comes by itself: when you are young you can but you do not understand when you are old you can always less but you understand more and more...
unpluggged
Addicted to Fun and Learning
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2023
- Messages
- 983
- Likes
- 1,228
Looking at them, I asked myself why would they assemble in this ugly room to listen to a stereo system of a doubtful quality instead of attending some good live performance...
Maybe because they can make a YouTube video in the ugly room at their convenience whereas they'd get kicked out of a live performance for doing that.
It's a great thing! You wouldn't be on this site if you weren't an audiophile, none of us would.
If you don't believe me then your Greek and Latin need a bit of refreshing.
Virtually any noun can be misused as a derogatory expression. I think we should try to avoid that.
unpluggged
Addicted to Fun and Learning
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2023
- Messages
- 983
- Likes
- 1,228
I'm here precisely because I have nothing to do with this disorder.
By this logic, paedophiles and zoöphiles are also a great thing
And I think we should stick to well-established definitions.
phoenixdogfan
Major Contributor
But it does disqualify you from being a Taylor Swift critic. 
Once you get old enough to yell "get off my lawn!" you've earned the right to criticize anyone you wantBut it does disqualify you from being a Taylor Swift critic.
Or just don't care about the filters any more....Once you get old enough to yell "get off my lawn!" you've earned the right to criticize anyone you want
Soandso
Addicted to Fun and Learning
- Joined
- May 30, 2022
- Messages
- 688
- Likes
- 1,909
We might assume age related hearing loss of high frequencies is linear, meaning increasing loss as go up in frequencies. Apparently above 60 years of age what we lost at 10,000 Hz is commonly more than the dB of hearing loss at 16,000 Hz. See attached screen shot graphing hearing for 3 age groups of 34 individuals (27 females + 7 males) in each age group ("HL" in graph stands for hearing loss).
Below are the individual variations in hearing levels specifically among the 34 individuals age 60 - 74. It's hard to see how many were older than age 70, but dark blue indicates those. The light blue circles are the average frequency dB hearing levels as indicated in 1st graph which is laid out as average hearing loss (not levels).
Below are the individual variations in hearing levels specifically among the 34 individuals age 60 - 74. It's hard to see how many were older than age 70, but dark blue indicates those. The light blue circles are the average frequency dB hearing levels as indicated in 1st graph which is laid out as average hearing loss (not levels).
Last edited:
