Are you too old to be an audiophile?

Hope not. I'll keep trying to be one at 56.

an older audiophile's high freq hearing loss is compenstated for by their higher hifi IQ.

Elizabeth:

Audiophile and the quality of LISTENING does not depend entirely on the flat frequency response from 20hz to 20khz.
Plenty of Golden ears have damaged hearing, and can still hear better than most folks with perfect hearing.
Being an Audiophile does not mean HEARING, it means LISTENING.

Excellent statements. Couldn't agree more.

Gma44

Perhaps we loose something in regards to volume but not in definition, tonal accuracy .

Great.

Onemug:

The "nuances of high end gear" do not exist exclusively in frequencies above 14K. Dynamic contrasts exist at all freqs.

Thank you.

Dopogue, Mofimadness well said too!

I wanted to post last (Saturday) night but all I had was my iPod and for whatever reason it wouldn't let me. So I am glad to see some of the opinions posted.

I have always wondered why people always pointed to the higher frequencies where these "nuances" seem to exclusively exist.

How about soundstage height, width, depth? Or bass extension, or subtleties at lower volumes blah, blah, blah?

You get my point.

Cwlondon:
Humor, correct?:)

Best,

Dave

I will get back to you after I nap.

Thank you Bryon and Elizabeth for excellent posts. I am constantly amazed at how many audiophiles will yabber on about the quality of this or that tube, or the difference between this tweeter and that one, but then cannot tell the difference between a violin and a viola, or a trombone and a french horn. One of my all-time favorite stories, though, is about an "audiophile" I encountered in a high-end audio boutique who was ranting and raving to the sales guy (a friend who I knew had a very good ear) about the speed accuracy being "way off" on a certain turntable my friend was demonstrating for him. While I do not have true perfect pitch, it is close enough, and I came to my sales friend's defense, insisting that the table was at the correct speed. After my friend proved to him I was correct by actually measuring it, I then had him put on a different recording of the same piece that had been playing (Bach, but I forget now which piece exactly) with an early music group playing at Baroque pitch. Sure enough, the guy didn't even notice the pitch difference, which was of course considerable, as the pitch used on the recording I picked out is A415, which is fairly standard for Baroque pitch, and is at least 25 Hz below the modern pitch (I say at least because modern pitch has now crept up to A442 in most places here in the US). That dude has never been back to that store ever since. Good times...