Here's A Question...

S

Soundbaron

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Aug 19, 2025
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I'm getting a little long in the tooth frankly, and it occurred to me the other day that the last time I had my hearing checked it had degraded significantly since I was a young Audiophile. I think whereas it was once in the realm of 20-20000 I am presently only able to reliably decern test tones up to about 12000 HZ. At the same time the curious part to me is that I'm still able to detect good sounding gear from mediocre seemingly as well as I ever could, and still hear those nuances in music reproduction that we all love and gets us excited about high fidelity gear. My question is how is this possible given my limited audible frequency range?
 
I think a lot more goes into our perception of sound quality than just our ear’s ability to hear high frequencies.

I’m in the same boat I’m sure. The 15750 Hz horizontal oscillators in TV sets used to drive me bonkers. I’m sure I couldn’t hear them today. But that hasn’t dampened my critical listening ability or my enjoyment of recorded music.
 
I read somewhere that quite a few classical music conductors could not hear much over 6,000 cycles.... after standing in front of an orchestra for years. Yet they could easily still identify exactly which player in the violin section was messing up. Most music is well under 10,000 Hz.
 
Our enjoyment, appreciation of music does not lie in the upper registers for the most part. As GSOphile said, it's well below even your current limit. FWIW, at 72 I know full well of what you speak...... ;)
 
I had my hearing tested in July of last year at Mass General ENT. Hey, it was next door to our hotel! That hotel was a former prison. Only the best for my bride!

All kidding aside, the test showed my hearing was excellent overall. But I’m also not 18 anymore.
 
In my high school electronics class, the teacher one day did a set-up and we listened to frequencies. We all and a teacher in his twenties were 20 - 20,000 even a bit more. Our teacher in his 50's said "I can't hear much past 12,000."

Recently (just turned 71), did a test using an online source. Topped out around 9,000 maybe a bit more. None the less, the desire to tweak and upgrade the sounds persists.
 
I have never had my hearing tested, but I do know I love how my system sounds and I know what I like or dislike in others, I assume my hearing is good
 
Last I checked was 13K for me, but that was a few years back. I turn 67 this month, so I bet 10-11K if I am lucky.
 
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