Hearing Loss and the Audiophile

[PeterG]

Robbbby's recent thread on hearing loss due to trauma reminded me of a pet theory I've been nursing for a while.  Perhaps age-related hearing loss actually makes us appreciate audiophile systems even more than we did before age crept up on us?  This is in direct opposition to the frequent critique that audiophiles are a bunch of old guys whose age related hearing loss makes it impossible to hear the nuances they claim their systems reveal.

 

Highly resolving speakers/systems--let's say those that others might describe as too analytical--are those that do the best job of separation, or adding air.  For those of us of a certain age (or certain number of rock concerts, haha), this is exactly what we lose in a crowded restaurant--we cannot distinguish our companions' voices from the background din.  Perhaps speakers that are too analytical for the average younger person are actually just what certain older listeners require to discern the separation that younger people can hear on a mediocre system?  Similarly, maybe reductions in the noise floor are more appreciated than by those who can more easily filter out low level background?

 

So while a person with age related hearing loss will not hear all that a person with keen hearing will hear, the older person's relative enjoyment of certain music will improve by more as he goes from a mass market system to a highly resolving system.  For example--let's say a young guy can hear 90% of what's on a track played over a mass market system, and his dad can hear only 80%.  Now we move the track to a highly resolving system, and the young gets to 99-100% with the dad at 95%.  The young guy is always hearing more than the dad.  But because the young guy's hearing was so good at the start, his improvement is capped  The dad's improvement is 50% greater.  So the dad is actually getting more value from the expensive system than the keen eared son.

 

Full disclosure--I am 57 with a bit of age related hearing loss, though not enough for an audiologist to even suggest a test as I was fitted for IEMs, and I love my highly resolving B&W 805 speakers that my daughter finds to be "too much" (haha).  

 

Thoughts?

 

 

[PeterG]

14 hours ago, Allan F said:

 

Whatever works for you is the answer. Personally, I find that the type of analytical speakers you describe are not musical, and I wouldn't trade that quality for the additional separation you experience.

 

I agree that some highly resolving systems sound less musical, and by "musical", I presume you mean rhythmic/organic/warm.   I do not like those either.  I find my system very musical, but of course that's a function of the whole set up.  I do not think it's difficult for most people to increase the resolution of their system without losing musicality.

[PeterG]

Thanks @PeterSt  You've given me a lot to think about.  I agree that your point about the absence of distortion (or higher signal to noise ratio) is a good discription.  Also, as suggested by your website, that the last few percent of improvement can have a huge impact on enjoyment.  Maybe that's we become addicted to better sound, and irritated by distortion, as you describe.