Young folk are lucky; nowadays equipment with a transparent sound is available for a low price. No longer the problem of not being able to afford a great sound until your hearing has already started to deteriorate...
How old are most Headfi users?
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Matez
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Yup, I also think that headphones often give a better overall experience in comparison to speaker stereo... and for a lot less money.
MDKrinkles
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I’m pretty young and even I’ve seen that change. It’s wild how much more affordable incredible sounding gear has gotten just in the relatively short time I’ve been following the hobby. Specifically balanced gear and planar headphones have gotten way more affordable at an entry level.
Matez
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Agreed, the progress in every regard is quite massive if someone asks me. The thing that impresses me the most is the quality of IEMs we can currently get for $100-150 or so.
MDKrinkles
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I remember hearing the original he1000 years ago and it was like 3000$ or something. I thought the giant egg shaped planar drivers were such a crazy thing. Now I have ananda nanos that I got for sub 500$. I do appreciate that hifiman genuinely does trickledown tech. When the he1k came out I didn’t think I’d ever be able to reasonably afford those wack egg shaped drivers.
Matez
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I had HE1K, too. Was a crazy expense back then, but so much better than early HD-800 I had prior to that.
MDKrinkles
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I’m just happy the used market has allowed me to get the LCD XCs I’d always dreamed of. I went to audiovisionSF when I was visiting family oh god maybe a decade ago. The XCs were the first headphones that really (for better or worse) showed me what a true high end sound was like. And tbh a lot of the flagships of yesteryear still hold up imo.
Yeah, that is my frustration. I'm in the older group and It doesn't take much to trigger my tinnitus due to years of unavoidable occupational exposure to hazardous noise. Some days I can't enjoy music as it sounds dulled and sinus pressure aggravates it. I'll admit some of my hearing loss could have been delayed if I had been more careful while I was younger. I got into head-fi in my late 40's and it opened my eyes/ears to a new perception of music. I was always a tech-head modifying computer gear so it was a natural progression for me to enjoy desktop audio gear and headphones. IEMs are too much for my ear pressure sensitivity and I can only tolerate some closed backs for a limited time. Open backs are OK for me in extended listening so I do have some years of enjoyment ahead of me. And I look forward to passing on audio gear to my kids to appreciate when they set up their own homes.
Trouble is when we were young, I am 57, the idea of hearing health was not really a serious consideration.
I have mown lawns and used 2 stroke leaf blowers at home for years without hearing protection and even done some hunting and duck shooting without hearing protection. On a rifle or clay target range I always used hearing protection of course when competing but not always when further away from the firing line. I am probably pretty lucky that I only have a constant low level high pitched squeal in my left ear and a corresponding dip in hearing in that ear. Mostly I don't even notice it and it is constant and not exacerbated by other factors.
The thing that prompted by previous comment is that I have had conversations with gents on Head Fi about them hearing tiny nuances in sound, literally down to a Rhodium plated plug versus standard apparently making a notable difference, only to later discover these gents were in there 60s and one was just about to turn 70. There is a good chance the older gents hearing topped out at under 10 kHz !
I don't think that treble extension is the only, or even the main factor to consider with regards to hearing acuity. Listening is a skill that can be trained and to some degree experience affects our ability to hear nuances. I recall a study that reported how the Heschl's Gyrus in the brain (which is responsible for a large part of auditory processing) enlarges for people who have musical training and not just as a function of age. I certainly cannot claim to be a highly skilled listener, but I do have several years of musical training as a reference.
One example is that I have a friend who is an audio dealer and I was in his store when he was setting up a pair of speakers for a customer. He set up the speakers, toed them in, then sat down and listened. I sat down too and listened. I thought those speakers sounded good, but within 30 seconds, he said, "something's wrong" and got up. He went to the left speaker and placed a level on top of it. Sure enough, it was a few degrees off of level. He adjusted the feet to level it out, then sat down again and went "yeah that's better". I, frankly, could not hear a difference from the leveling. That was about a year ago, I was 30, while he was in his late 60s. My hearing (I can hear up to about 18.2 KHz) is certainly better than his in terms of high frequency extension, yet he could determine just from listening that one speaker was a few degrees off in the vertical axis. But I also am not that used to speaker listening, while he's been working with stereo speakers for nearly 50 years. He has much more experience, which was more useful than my greater treble sensitivity.
There's another question of how much of the nuances of music are actually tied to the very high frequency content. Do the nuances live in the upper treble? I'm not sure how true that is. I've seen and heard examples of how phase relationships in the signal are more important to our perception of useful information (speech in the example) than the frequency content.
Does that extend to hearing differences in cable connections? Mmm, I'm skeptical on that front. I'm not a cable roller. But just because someone is old doesn't mean that they are unable to hear subtle differences in audio quality.
One example is that I have a friend who is an audio dealer and I was in his store when he was setting up a pair of speakers for a customer. He set up the speakers, toed them in, then sat down and listened. I sat down too and listened. I thought those speakers sounded good, but within 30 seconds, he said, "something's wrong" and got up. He went to the left speaker and placed a level on top of it. Sure enough, it was a few degrees off of level. He adjusted the feet to level it out, then sat down again and went "yeah that's better". I, frankly, could not hear a difference from the leveling. That was about a year ago, I was 30, while he was in his late 60s. My hearing (I can hear up to about 18.2 KHz) is certainly better than his in terms of high frequency extension, yet he could determine just from listening that one speaker was a few degrees off in the vertical axis. But I also am not that used to speaker listening, while he's been working with stereo speakers for nearly 50 years. He has much more experience, which was more useful than my greater treble sensitivity.
There's another question of how much of the nuances of music are actually tied to the very high frequency content. Do the nuances live in the upper treble? I'm not sure how true that is. I've seen and heard examples of how phase relationships in the signal are more important to our perception of useful information (speech in the example) than the frequency content.
Does that extend to hearing differences in cable connections? Mmm, I'm skeptical on that front. I'm not a cable roller. But just because someone is old doesn't mean that they are unable to hear subtle differences in audio quality.
I am sure you are right but age related hearing degradation can't help in general.
Of course, none of the removes the "perception" due to bias versus "hearing" question but that is another conversation.
Of course, none of the removes the "perception" due to bias versus "hearing" question but that is another conversation.
WILLJS
500+ Head-Fier
I thinnk IEMs are where the most evident improvement is. I have a few pairs of $500+ iems that are 10 years old or so and they are nowhere near comparable to good $200 recent models
Don't worry we'll have robo ears if we can make it to 2050 
WILLJS
500+ Head-Fier
that is the question...Don't worry we'll have robo ears if we can make it to 2050
Matez
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