[d1stanc3e]

Hello, I apologize if my english is not good it is a little difficult to put some things into words and that if this is a stupid question. Was given an old pair of shure se 215s and subsequently found out about high quality music etc but it has got worrying. I would like to invest in a better pair of earphones but my hearing only goes up to 12-13khz (I'm 15 and this is unusual?) 
 
I'm worried that I would not be able to further appreciate and know about audio with this hearing restriction. Experiencing high quality mp3 with the shure compared to stock earbuds and youtube felt so good and I want more.. Noticing instruments that were not heard..  Like, investing in a really good pair of headphones and lossless is going to do no benefit because of my ears because of the hearing limit? eg. 320kbps goes up to 20khz but doesn't make a difference with lower bit rate file because of bad ears.
 
I want to be able to hear all those crazy descriptions reviews have about how the headphones sound and enjoy details in the music down to the smallest detail but it may never happen..
 
Again, sorry if this is a stupid question and if the things are hard to understand.

 

[Tail]

If you do some research you'll see that there are basically no instruments (or very rare and almost never used) that use over your 12-13 KHz. Humans generally hear ~20 Hz - 20 KHz but that doesn't mean music uses and needs 20 KHz, actually you can cut everything above 16 KHz and no one ever would pass the blind test between it and 20 KHz, in most music you can cut even more, so don't worry about that.
Frequency response isn't so important as you'd think. Those high frequencies are also usually really silent and as they go they become more silent and your brain rarely even register them next to other louder tones, not sure how to explain that in English. If you look at those visualizer effects on your player you'll see that bars above 10 KHz will barely move and that most "active" frequencies are those in mid range and lower end (bass).
However if you have some bigger hearing damage, tone-deaf or whatever, you might have problems differentiating high end from lower end earphones, but even then, better earphones may have more powerful bass for example or something else you'd hear and appreciate.
 
Also many of those crazy descriptions about smallest details and all that... while it can be true to some point a lot of them exaggerate everything a bit, again depends how much you care about all those things. Of course high end headphone will sound better than some cheap crap, but once you get to the certain point everything above are just small improvements (more differences than improvements), small details and a matter of preference.
For example I liked 300$ Sennheiser IE80 more than 800$ Sennheiser IE800 that I've read many crazy descriptions about, so your taste in sound can play a big role in it.
 
So if you've heard the difference between stock earbuds and SE215 and you appreciated it, than you obviously are capable of hearing and enjoying in better earphones, tho note that the difference between bad stock earbuds and SE215 is huge comparing to the difference between SE215 and some higher end earphone, again more money it costs, less improvement it gives, law of diminishing returns.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Hello, I apologize if my english is not good it is a little difficult to put some things into words and that if this is a stupid question. Was given an old pair of shure se 215s and subsequently found out about high quality music etc but it has got worrying. I would like to invest in a better pair of earphones but my hearing only goes up to 12-13khz (I'm 15 and this is unusual?) 
 
I'm worried that I would not be able to further appreciate and know about audio with this hearing restriction. Experiencing high quality mp3 with the shure compared to stock earbuds and youtube felt so good and I want more.. Noticing instruments that were not heard..  Like, investing in a really good pair of headphones and lossless is going to do no benefit because of my ears because of the hearing limit? eg. 320kbps goes up to 20khz but doesn't make a difference with lower bit rate file because of bad ears.
 
I want to be able to hear all those crazy descriptions reviews have about how the headphones sound and enjoy details in the music down to the smallest detail but it may never happen..
 
Again, sorry if this is a stupid question and if the things are hard to understand.

 
 

Most instruments don't have much sound beyond 16khz. All the talk about the microdetails are mostly erroneously attributed to the response range when the real factor is how transparent the system is overall (nearly 90% of which depends on the headphone or speaker), in other words how smooth the graph is. If you have a headphone or speaker that claims "30hz to 40,000hz" but has a jagged response that practically looks like something on a hospital monitor then it won't matter - what you're likely to get is auditory masking where some frequencies are too loud while others are too soft. That's how you don't end up hearing detail.

 

In many other cases, what many perceive to be "more detailed" actually has a spike in the treble, and then the same people when given a headphone or speaker that has no spike in the treble (or it's farther up) and has an overall smoother response, will then call that headphone/speaker "dark."

 

[d1stanc3e]

  If you do some research you'll see that there are basically no instruments (or very rare and almost never used) that use over your 12-13 KHz. Humans generally hear ~20 Hz - 20 KHz but that doesn't mean music uses and needs 20 KHz, actually you can cut everything above 16 KHz and no one ever would pass the blind test between it and 20 KHz, in most music you can cut even more, so don't worry about that.
Frequency response isn't so important as you'd think. Those high frequencies are also usually really silent and as they go they become more silent and your brain rarely even register them next to other louder tones, not sure how to explain that in English. If you look at those visualizer effects on your player you'll see that bars above 10 KHz will barely move and that most "active" frequencies are those in mid range and lower end (bass).
However if you have some bigger hearing damage, tone-deaf or whatever, you might have problems differentiating high end from lower end earphones, but even then, better earphones may have more powerful bass for example or something else you'd hear and appreciate.
 
Also many of those crazy descriptions about smallest details and all that... while it can be true to some point a lot of them exaggerate everything a bit, again depends how much you care about all those things. Of course high end headphone will sound better than some cheap crap, but once you get to the certain point everything above are just small improvements (more differences than improvements), small details and a matter of preference.
For example I liked 300$ Sennheiser IE80 more than 800$ Sennheiser IE800 that I've read many crazy descriptions about, so your taste in sound can play a big role in it.
 
So if you've heard the difference between stock earbuds and SE215 and you appreciated it, than you obviously are capable of hearing and enjoying in better earphones, tho note that the difference between bad stock earbuds and SE215 is huge comparing to the difference between SE215 and some higher end earphone, again more money it costs, less improvement it gives, law of diminishing returns.

 
 

   
 

Most instruments don't have much sound beyond 16khz. All the talk about the microdetails are mostly erroneously attributed to the response range when the real factor is how transparent the system is overall (nearly 90% of which depends on the headphone or speaker), in other words how smooth the graph is. If you have a headphone or speaker that claims "30hz to 40,000hz" but has a jagged response that practically looks like something on a hospital monitor then it won't matter - what you're likely to get is auditory masking where some frequencies are too loud while others are too soft. That's how you don't end up hearing detail.

 

In many other cases, what many perceive to be "more detailed" actually has a spike in the treble, and then the same people when given a headphone or speaker that has no spike in the treble (or it's farther up) and has an overall smoother response, will then call that headphone/speaker "dark."

 
Thank you for clarifying.