How good is your hearing ? And how do you know ?

Who cares? Why would hearing loss affect my ability to hear differences between speakers or amps or dacs and prefer one to another? I hear what I hear. Whether it’s the same as what someone with “perfect hearing” hears doesn’t matter.

That said, I know I’m better at listening and pay more attention than the average person. I’d say my perception is above average.

I have a good friend who is a professional jazz violinist and his hearing isn’t great but he can hear things in music I’ll never hear.  He knows exactly what instruments are playing and can transpose it into sheet music or pick up his instrument and play each part for you.  He can also tell exact differences between audio equipment.  I have no doubt he has more hearing loss than I do.  

Which is to say, the natural world doesn’t have a lot of sound in the frequencies where we lose hearing... so.. who cares?

I remembered this article, about high-school students having their cell phone ring at a high enough frequency so the adults can't hear it:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2006/06/13/new-york-schoolkids-use-cell-phone-ring-tone-teachers-cant-h...

I think just the opposite of inna though regarding hearing quality vs. equipment quality.  As my hearing is going down, I'm wanting my equipment quality to compensate as much as possible for it.

Of course, the other problem is when you're young and can hear perfectly, you can't afford the better equipment, so I listened on "The Record Eater" turntable.

I run tidal through an old Sansui 1000a with diapason adamantes and it sounds pretty good. Many of my high end audiophiles love the warm full sound. Many can’t believe that a 55 yr old receiver can sound so good with modern digital technology. 

I am not against compensation if it works and if you know what you are doing.

As I age, its the loses that really hurt.  The loss of friends, of family, of bike riding 50 miles, of the ability to retain thought or using the word that I knew so well but can't recollect ... the loss of secure balance the loss of a successful day at work...  but the loss of acute hearing is a particularly hard loss.   I still know music, but the magic of the separation of instruments, depth perception, the cleanliness of a triangle is just not there.  Live today, for tomorrow is a different place.