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Aging and Treble and Income?

I'm in my late 50s; been listening to, and playing, music for most of my life. I still occasionally haunt the salons, but these days not to buy new gear; more just curiosity about developments in our wonderful hobby. These days I just buy music; records, CDs and the odd download.
I was listening to a very expensive system recently, a combination of an excellent digital front end, feeding an exotic tube array of components, and outputting via a beautifully constructed set of English high-end speakers.
A very impressive sound to say the least. Not like real music though: very very good hi-fi, but not real.
One of the obvious oddities was the frequency response above maybe 4k. Just incorrect. Very clear, very emphasised and incisive, no doubt, but not right.
And it occured to me that this isn't unusual. And then a set of questions came to me. For the purposes of this debate I will exclude the 128k iPod generation - their tastes in listening are their own, and as much driven by budget as space constraint as anything else. I prefer to concentrate on the generation that has increased leisure and disposable income. It's a sad fact that this generation is plagued by the inevitability of progressive hearing loss, most often accompanied by diminished ability to hear higher frequencies. But it's this generation that can afford the 'best' equipment.

My question is simply this: is it not possible (or highly likely) that the higher-end industry is driven by the need to appeal to those whose hearing is degrading? In other words, is there a leaning towards the building-in of a compensatory frequency emphasis in much of what is on the shelves? My question is simplistic, and the industry may indeed be governed by the relentless pursuit of accuracy and musicality, but so much that I have hear is, I find, very difficult to listen to as it is so far from what I believe to be reality. Perhaps there has always been an emphasis in making our sytems sound "exciting" as opposed to "honest": I can understand the pleasure in this pursuit, as it's the delight in technology itself and I see nothing very wrong in that. But, all this emphasised treble....I just wonder if anyone out there in cyberspace agrees with me?
57s4me
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,308 posts
 
E,

Never heard that one before. But maybe if so, it was in response to many speaker/amp combos of the day tilting tne other way? Modern gear is much better overall so maybe carts are just following suit and trying to NOT sound like a lot of digital.
albertporter's avatar
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albertporter
4,949 posts
 
This is a good forum, pleased to read there are so many members like me.

I go to lots of audio shows and have for many, many years. I would say 90% of what I’ve heard is bright to the point of irritation.

Some are so bad I can hardly enter the room. I've been shopping for speakers for over a year. Noting wrong with what I have but would love something simple where I only need two amps and (maybe) no sub woofers.

Doesn’t look like it's possible, at least not for anything less than the price of a second home and some of what cost that much is not musical.
gregm
3,405 posts
 
an excellent pair of Quad 57 ELS speakers
These produce outstanding sound within their response spectrum... Nothing to do with getting older:)

I've been shopping for speakers for over a year. Noting wrong with what I have but would love something simple where I only need two amps and (maybe) no sub woofers
You probably have considered Linkwitz's design? I find the sound very good; I listened to an older incarnation of his "Orion" design. OTOH it sounds much better than it looks...:)
ramy
141 posts
 
I have recently attended a a couple of live performances ,the sound was bad,over amplified speakers.The days of live music without electronics aids seems to have disappeared from commercial live performances.At audio shows and at dealers the demos usually use what they deem to be exotic music with lots of highs and bass to try and demonstrate how spectacular the music system is,result for me anyway is ear fatigue and irritation.As for hearing aids as a geriatric I do not recommend them for audio enjoyment,the decline in hearing is related not just the ear physiology but to the inability of the brain to process the high frequency.The DAC in ones brain has deteriorated(not literally)
opus88
530 posts
 
It has taken me a long time(I'll be 70 in a few months.)to come to my senses about listening TO my ears, not just through them. An exciting, fairly loud, up front sound used to be my top priority, now it's a relaxing, more somewhat laid back sound. And, yes, I agree with others concerning the treble claims---excessive AND often unrealistic in contrast to live, unamplified sounds. If there's one regret, it's that I wish I had taken better care of my ears regarding listening habits and preferences. I'm afraid that kind of advice falls on a fair number of "deaf ears", as it used to with me.
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