When is it time to stop the never ending quest for audiophile playback perfection?

[BlueSkyy]

Yesterday, I listened to Dave Grusin’s “Sweetwater Nights” from his "Out of the Shadows" album for the first time in a long time.  I used this song back in the day to tweak the playback head's azimuth of my Sony Walkman cassette player into alignment with the record head on my Nakamichi Dragon tape deck by making sure the triangle sounded correct and the bell sound at the end of the track did not sound overly “leaden”.

 

Well I listened to that cut yesterday and I could barely hear the triangle at all!  I thought the sound system had developed a “glitch” but then realized that, to my horror, it was probably my ears that have gone off.  In order to make the tune sound acceptable, using JRiver MC's equalizer funtion I had to crank in about a +7db parametric filter at about 5.500 khz with a Q of about 1.5 to fix it.  The same thing held true on another system and even through headphones thereby confirming to me that my hearing has begun to crap out.  I suspect at some point I my schedule a visit to an audiologist to confirm these unscientific findings.

 

The point of all this is to say that I am asking myself that it may be time for me to stop investing lots of time and loads of money in search of audiophile nirvana if, after all is said and done, the sensors in my head have begun to fail.  I suspect the truth of the matter is that, until science and medicine can develop a high quality direct interface from my audio system's electronics directly into the part of the brain that allows me to hear bypassing the ear itself, the spending of any more money on the latest DAC, cable or speaker system will be in vain.

 

It sucks to get old!

 

Your thoughts?

[BlueSkyy]

That makes sense.  And, in reality, I was only referring to frequency response when there are so many other aspects of this hobby like soundstage and imaging, the attractiveness of multichannel sound, etc., that don't rely on frequency response per se.

 

Regarding hearing aids, does "high quality" necessarily translate into high cost as some of the brands are quite pricy?

[BlueSkyy]

1 minute ago, firedog said:

Unfortunately, yes. The good ones are pricey.

Thanks for that and also for showing me my "pricey" spelling error.

[BlueSkyy]

11 hours ago, fas42 said:

Well, the first thing I would do is go to a music store, and have someone there play on a real triangle for a bit, and consider how it comes across, as I listen to it ... before doing anything about my hearing. Because that's how my ear/brain system, in its current 'condition', is performing - if the playback matches that subjective impression reasonably well, and I'm not happy with what I'm hearing, then indeed I might consider some type of hearing assistance ....

That's a really good idea!  We have a music store in the local strip mall.

[BlueSkyy]

Well said and points for all of us to ponder.

[BlueSkyy]

System beauty adds much to the listening experience.  I've even purchased some cabled for their looks and my confirmation bias also said that they sounded better too.

 

Also, as does in my case, a good 25 y.o. single malt Scotch used judiciously dramatically increases listening enjoyment.  I guess the ends sometimes do justify the means.

[BlueSkyy]

37 minutes ago, PeterG said:

 

 

I have excellent IEMs--Ultimate Ears 18 (purchased after Chris's rave about his IEMs--thanks!).  Though I prefer full headphones at home, I recommend premium IEMs highly for hifi for anyone with the cash.  (Just don't go for a walk with them, you will not hear a sound as the car hits you from behind)

 

I have the UE 18s too and swear by them!  I like them equally well and for other reasons than I like my Audeze LCD-4 open backed and LCD-XC closed backs.

 

UE now has a new flagship model with, what is it, six or eight drivers per side?  A true marvel of miniturization!

[BlueSkyy]

I use JRiver MC and the built in 20-band eq and parametric eq work wonders for my hearing dip at 6khz.

[BlueSkyy]

2 minutes ago, davide256 said:

 

The fact that you remembered what it should sound like says that you are still a critical listener. And unlikely to accept change to a non critical listener  😁

Indeed.  Have a great day!

[BlueSkyy]

My understanding is that there is a helluva lot of DSP going on inside those tiny buggers but I could be wrong.

[BlueSkyy]

40 minutes ago, JoshM said:

 

I think doing some hearing tests -- even app-based ones -- is more helpful than assuming this track indicates something. There are so many factors, from the mastering to the format to the transducer and beyond, that it's completely possible your hearing isn't the issue. In doing my TBVO columns, I've certain come across masterings that rendered some sound almost inaudible. Headphones or speakers? Even more so.

No doubt about it what you say is very true.  In my case, I've had the same recording ripped from CD for many years and the speaker setup and amplifiers have been pretty much the same for over a decade.

 

Back in the day, I used to be able to hear the horizontal oscillator in a tube type television set which was right about 18khz.  Now I do well to hear the dinner bell call me to supper.

 

Here's an odd one I will never be able to explain:  I fell asleep overnight with a pair of Audeze LCD-XCs on my head at a not unreasonable volume level.  I woke up about eight hours later to the horror of finding the hearing in my left ear was completely dead.  No ringing.  No tinnitus.  Absolutely nothing!  I was scared as hell.  This loss of hearing on the left went on for about two more days then my hearing slowly returned.  A week later I got in and saw an audiologist who could find nothing wrong save the high frequency roll off that I knew was there.  To this day I've no idea what happened to my "brain" for that two day period.

[BlueSkyy]

That could very well be the case!  I do produce a lot of that nasty stuff!

[BlueSkyy]

2 minutes ago, AnotherSpin said:

Audiophilia is a complicated disease, and its implications for the mind and the wallet are considerable, but recovery is possible.

One would think that, by now, a vaccine has been developed and is available to cure it.

[BlueSkyy]

1 hour ago, RickyV said:

That can not be correct, a vaccine might have been developed to prevent Audiophilia but not sure if there is a medicine to cure Audiophilia. 😎

My wife said I better get a handle on the disease or "else"..................  I don't think I really want to know what "else" can be.  😰