High End Audio and Your hearing as you get older

I think regardless of how your hearing gradually decays over time, good equipment will sound more like live music and real instruments than poorer equipment - you still have a standard for comparison, though your range has narrowed, there remains something akin to the Absolute Sound for you, and the hearing acuity you have, to judge your equipment and recordings.

Unsound,
I believe I didn't explain it correctly and misled you. Its not great gaps in my hearing that my brain is filing in. That point was to illustrate a bigger level of impairment which I don't have. You are spot on with the remainder: the levels of enjoyment, though different for all, are all capable of growth and refinement.

Unsound, I think you example of the balance in salad dressing is spot on. Not to be too mystical but, to me, balance is important in most everything.

As far as others' discussion declining hearing being a problem, it has already been mentioned that there is FAR more to hearing than just frequency response - distortion, timbre, harmonic presentation, etc. As someone else mentioned, I have trouble picking out voices in a noisy environment, but put me in front of my system in a quiet room and things are wonderful. Add to this the likelihood that we all hear things differently and anything more than generalization becomes difficult if not impossible.

I think it all ties in with what Ralph from Atmasphere is always mentioning and that is the loudness queues that the ear detects and gets processed;and since I moved into the age of 51 I have noticed some change in hearing;but if the electronics get lowered I got to think you would still be able to hear a change of some type whether better or worse I am not sure of though.

I liken it to taste buds. There is no doubt that both dull with age. For a teen, macdonalds food is the height of cuisine. As you age, all of your tastes become more discriminating. So at least in my experience (age 59), I care more about both the hardware (clarity) and software (harmonic complexity). It takes more quality and flavor to give me the same kick I got from listening to beatles/stones dreck on cheap stereos when I was 19.