has your 'hearing' changed as you've got older?

reevesy

bit of a strange one...

....i've noticed i seem to be a lot more sensitive to higher frequencies/treble than i remember

i dont often crank up my Kef iq90''s like i used to my old kef q4's..which i remember sounding a lot better when i turned them up a bit.

but just recently i've noticed that i've been finding the big 90's a can sound quite shrill with a lot of music and especially vocals when they are turned up... even a moderate amount and get quite fatiguing pretty quickly to my ears.....dont remember them being like that when i first got them about 4 or 5 years ago.......

i'm coming up for 52 and still got my own hair and teeth so not ready for the pension yet

just wondered if was an age thing ...or just my ears


current kit is a yamaha rx v2067 with an audio analogue primo amp via the pre outs for stereo......cyrus cd player and squeezebox touch

gibbsy

Your hearing can change the older you get, although in all honesty you're still a baby. My missus reckons I've been stone deaf for years. It's also possible that your particular likes have changed. When I was a younger everything had to be loud and some of the concerts I went to you couldn't hold a conversation with yourself let alone anyone else. Now I like detail, not volume. I do find some very high sounds a bit grating which could be a result of me having my head very close to high pressure pumps in my time at work.

Costello

I had a routine hearing test and was told I had a slight loss of hearing at “high frequencies” (it wasn’t quantified). When I asked, I was told this is perfectly normal as one “matures”. I’m sure this is on an individual basis though.
”Selective hearing“ is another matter. It is a vitally important life skill and should never be under-valued or over-used

reevesy

Actually that's reminded me off a hearing test I had about a year ago where I was told the same thing about  high frequency ....and it was normal as you get older.....thought that would mean hearing them less

......forgot about that ......must be old age !

Supersonic

My hearing hasn't changed at all but Mrs Supersonic has slowly started to mumble.

There's always an up side

mushii

Around the mid 40s your upper frequency hearing begins to deteriorate, permanently. It’s a normal part of ageing, just like needing glasses for reading. The ossicles start to wear and some of the scillia in the cochlea start to die off.

oldcootstereo

A clever take on selective hearing... The Other Side of Town by John Prine.  

I'm amazed I can hear as well as I can, despite working and playing in loud environments.  Hearing protection is a must from as early an age as reasonable if you planning on enjoying hifi as you approach dotage.

gibbsy

In your late 60s the lower parts have definitely deteriorated. Or are we still on hearing.

Don't know whether it is old age but headphones now seem to suit me more although I'd much rather sit there and listen to stereo music on the speakers as an experience I certainly use the headphones for more critical listening.

Derek S-H

This has probably happened to me then - I've lost some upper treble, particularly in my left ear.

I also find it difficult to hear conversations in noisy environments, like the background is louder than the person I'm speaking to?

I do like my music loud still, and coming from a pair of big floorstanders, but I know I'm not hearing the same things like I used to.

Having a soundbar/soundbase is a must when you have a flatscreen TV, but I'm sure my neighbours aren't too impressed about sharing "Match Of The Day" with me!

mushii

The reason headphones probably suit you is as the scilia die off there is less of them to process specific frequencies hence any extraneous noise at those frequencies limit the  sound from the primary source. By using headphones you block out some of that stray noise and focus the sound on the remaining scilia.