Are you too old to be an audiophile?

Farjamed, I don't doubt that you don't mean to offend anyone. However, just re-read your question and ask yourself if it could have been phrased in a better way.

Are you too old
Are you too deaf
Are you too stupid
Are you too poor

See what I mean? I'm not offended, but I do think this is a topic that is hard to take seriously. It sounds more like some of you guys who are just starting to realize that you are getting older are starting to worry. Most people are much more interested in what their health will be, or what sex will be like. ;-)

There are other reasons why one would set up a system differently as they get older. Like using the knowledge about what they prefer that has been acquired by the years of experience listening to hi-end equipment. It could be that their tastes have changed and so voice things a little differently.

I'm also left with the question what do to blame when you hear some twenty-something's system that is utter crap?

If there is an absolute definition of audio perfection, I suppose the answer in my case is yes. However, equipment performance measurements are usually dismissed in these forums as being unable to really describe how equipment sounds or which piece is better.

I have often seen the pursuit of audio equipment perfection framed in the concept of "sounds like live music." This is a relative standard, and even if what live music sounds like to my ears changes over time, I can apply the same frame of reference to my system as my ears age. So, my system still approaches the sound of live music TO ME, regardless of my hearing frequency loss.

I know I have high frequency hearing loss, so I do not attempt to tell other people what equipment sounds like. I do wonder if my system sounds terrible to others, but don't care too much since it sounds good to me and does not annoy my wife.

The live music standard is like any other, entirely relative as you've said. What live music sounds like to you may not be what it sounds like to me. It's like the difference of what a given wine might taste like to you and how it might taste to someone else. I have a very limited tolerance for the mediocrity of some of the live music presentations I've attended - either the venue itself, or more likely the mixing/amplification. This tolerance seems to be getting less and less as I get older and as my system has improved. In fact I find listening to my system more engaging than many live presentations of the same music...certainly more intimate. Certainly there are many exceptions too.

Re live music, I believe the Absolute Sound about 30 years ago used to frame the reference as live, unamplified music.

Certainly some live music sounds terrible.

However, even terrible live music usually has an immediacy and impact which is lacking in many audio systems.

04-12-11: Douglas_schroeder
In a similar fashion to the example of arthritis negatively impacting the running, hearing loss has a real world consequences.

You make some good observations, Douglas, but I'm not sure I reach the same conclusions you do. Maybe I'm unclear about your view on what is, IMO, the critical question of this thread...

For audiophiles, what is the average peak age of technical listening?

By "technical listening," I mean something like: the ability to discriminate differences in resolution, frequency response, transient response, harmonic accuracy, dynamic range, imaging, soundstaging, PRaT, coherence, and so on. The contrast to *technical* listening is *aesthetic* listening, which is something like: the ability to discriminate differences in interpretation, emotion, authenticity, imagery, beauty, and so on.

I say "average peak age" because some audiophiles probably peak later than others, just like marathoners. But still it may be possible to generalize about an age range of peak performance for audiophiles, just as we can generalize about the age range of peak performance for marathoners.

With that in mind, I suspect that, for audiophiles, the average peak age of technical listening lies somewhere in the broad range between 35 and 60. Some reasons I suspect that...

1. While fluid intelligence starts to decrease at around the age of 25, crystallized intelligence increases up until the mid to late 60's. I believe that technical listening is mostly *acquired* knowledge and expertise, and hence a form of crystallized intelligence, which increases with age. When fluid and crystallized intelligence are averaged together, the average peak age is somewhere between 35 and 60, which is the range I have speculated for the average peak performance of technical listening. Admittedly, this is a guess.

2. While age correlates with intellectual and artistic *productivity*, it does NOT correlate with intellectual or artistic *quality*, as judged by the ages at which intellectual and artistic masterworks are produced. In other words, as people age, they do less, but they don't do it less well. The studies that demonstrate this include the works of classical composers, FWIW.

3. As everyone knows, age related hearing loss is principally a consequence of damage to the hairs/cells of the ear, typically resulting in diminished high frequency perception. But the perception of an audio system's frequency response is only one element of technical listening. Technical listening is also a matter of the perception of an audio system's transient response, resolution, harmonic accuracy, dynamic range, imaging, soundstaging, PRaT, coherence, and so on. There is little reason to believe that age-related hearing loss results in a significant diminishment of the ability to discriminate those characteristics. Hence I believe that the bulk of technical listening remains largely unaffected by age-related hearing loss. The reason, I suspect, is that technical listening isn't principally something that happens "in the ears." It's principally something that happens in the brain.

For these reasons, and others I haven't mentioned, I believe that, for audiophiles, the average peak age of technical listening is older than some posters on this thread seem to suggest.

Bryon

P.S. FWIW, I am younger than 40.