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How Has Your Hearing Changed Over Time?


SWL

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I’m 45 years old and have been pretty rough on my ears, playing in bands, working construction and listening to loud music. I was thinking about this topic as well but more in relation to the Klipsch “sound” and how some people describe it as shouty or harsh. 
 

I was wondering if maybe Klipsch is more popular with the 40+ crowd. And, if so, could it be because our mature ears appreciate a bit more high end to compensate for hearing loss? Is it possible younger people think Klipsch sound harsh because their hearing is still pristine?
 

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20 minutes ago, Subtle Sam said:

I’m 45 years old and have been pretty rough on my ears, playing in bands, working construction and listening to loud music. I was thinking about this topic as well but more in relation to the Klipsch “sound” and how some people describe it as shouty or harsh. 
 

I was wondering if maybe Klipsch is more popular with the 40+ crowd. And, if so, could it be because our mature ears appreciate a bit more high end to compensate for hearing loss? Is it possible younger people think Klipsch sound harsh because their hearing is still pristine?
 

 

Only a few young people have heard my system, but they've invariably been highly impressed.  One person was curious about how the sound came out of the LS2 bass horns, which was a first, so I was a bit impressed with her.  Another, after barely noticing the big 402 horns in her peripheral vision, thought they were TVs, since they were flanking the TV and have pretty much the exact height and width of 40" 16:9 TV sets.  Her first thought was that I had some kind of 3-screen video array.  She was impressed with the sound, though.

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On 3/10/2022 at 12:35 AM, Subtle Sam said:

 Is it possible younger people think Klipsch sound harsh because their hearing is still pristine?

 

it's the contrary ,  sensitivity to HF means a  loss of HF hearing   

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it's the contrary ,  sensitivity to HF means a  loss of HF hearing 


If one has high frequency loss and can't hear high frequencies, how can they be sensitive to them in how they hear the music?

Just trying to understand which was part of my original post.


Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

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Perhaps it's two different things, sensitivity to and ability to hear higher frequencies.

 

One could have loss of HF and sensitivity as RandyH posits, but I do not believe one necessarily follows the other.

 

SWL alludes to another interesting hi fi conundrum:  if one's hearing rolls off substantially at say 12 or 14 kHz, why is 20 kHz and beyond sought in frequency response performance ?  I listened to a lot of cassette tapes and records back in the day, and I hazard any of them had any appreciable high end whatsoever.

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2 hours ago, SWL said:


 

 


If one has high frequency loss and can't hear high frequencies, how can they be sensitive to them in how they hear the music?

Just trying to understand which was part of my original post.


Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk
 

 

 

Well, I'm not an ear specialist or an audiotherapist. In my own experience, I was very sensitive to higher volume when I suddenly had a sudden hearing loss 27 years ago with dizziness followed by very annoying tinitus. In the frequencies of the voices it almost hurt when I tried to follow a voice in a group of people, for example in a pub, when several people were talking at the same time.

Thank God, this hearing loss was repaired by months of acupuncture therapy, four times a week. I still have tinitus, but not all the time, and it makes a lot of difference how I have learned to deal with it through therapists. Because nothing is worse than getting caught up in the tinitus, most of the time I manage not to think about it.

By the way, I have found that although I also love the sound of my Stirling Broadcast LS3/6 (BBC concept) for strings and classical music, the Klipsch Lascala are much more effective at carrying the sound into my brain, even when I listen to them softly. It's like the horns "overcome" the tinitus with much more acoustic information regardless of the volume...at least that's the case for me, even though the LS3/6 are very diverse in sound texture and richness of colour.

On hearing and age. I know of research tests where older people definitely do not hear higher than e.g. 9 kHz. That is the "simple" sine tone measurement. But if the same test persons listened to music with a full frequency range...and then a low-pass filter was suddenly activated at 9 kHz, all the test persons complained that the music was now dull and no longer so beautifully bright and clear.

 

There are also studies that show that we hear up to 16 kHz directly through the skull bones, so that perhaps something can be compensated here that is lost through the ear.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2866804/pdf/nihms158179.pdf

 

Generally speaking, I listen more quietly than I used to but with even more pleasure. The same goes for the volume of my electric guitar.

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4 hours ago, SWL said:


 

 


If one has high frequency loss and can't hear high frequencies, how can they be sensitive to them in how they hear the music?

 I'll try to explain it as best I can .

 

some humans can hear up  to 20kHz  , while others flatten at 10-12KHz .

 

anything above 10-12KHz  is still present  for a person with HF hearing loss , the ear drums /brain still sense the HF  , but  no longer as sound ,but as a sensitivity as the organs are  naturally reacting with a defense mechanism  to tell you to stop raising or even  lower the threshold , as music becomes  no  longer enjoyable with  tinnitus-sibilance-intolerance  rather than pleasure .

 

HF sensitivity can be reduced  by reversing the sound's origin  from the rear to the front   , allowing for the room to filter  the HF  prior to reaching the ears   , typically , you would place the speakers at the rear -corners /walls , and as the sound travels  the HF harshness  is partially dispersed in the room and the ears do a lot better .

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HF sensitivity can be reduced  by reversing the sound's origin  from the rear to the front   , allowing for the room to filter  the HF  prior to reaching the ears   , typically , you would place the speakers at the rear -corners /walls , and as the sound travels  the HF harshness  is partially dispersed in the room and the ears do a lot better .


Maybe that's part of the reason why I've gotten such good results adding absorption and diffusion in my listening room.



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On 3/9/2022 at 11:35 PM, Subtle Sam said:

I’m 45 years old and have been pretty rough on my ears, playing in bands, working construction and listening to loud music. I was thinking about this topic as well but more in relation to the Klipsch “sound” and how some people describe it as shouty or harsh. 
 

I was wondering if maybe Klipsch is more popular with the 40+ crowd. And, if so, could it be because our mature ears appreciate a bit more high end to compensate for hearing loss? Is it possible younger people think Klipsch sound harsh because their hearing is still pristine?
 

When you go to a concert what kind of speakers do you see? If one wants the live sound effect choose the same thing if you want live sound for your home. 

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On 3/11/2022 at 5:53 AM, henry4841 said:

When you go to a concert what kind of speakers do you see? If one wants the live sound effect choose the same thing if you want live sound for your home. 

Good point, if you are at a rock concert you are actually listening to the band's PA system not the instruments directly as you would at an acoustic jazz performance. This is most likely the reason people describe Klipsh as sounding live. PA systems use horns. My Ohm Walsh as nice as they are, do not sound as " live" as Klipsch with rock music. With jazz and acoustic they very much do, more so in fact. All about the presentation mechanism.

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I watched this on youtube last week and low and behold right at the beginning I think I am seeing LaScala bottom ends with a big horn on top. I assume they are Klipsch pro speakers. I have experimented with open baffle full range speakers in the past, still have them, and they do sound really good and enjoyable but compared horns they lack some detail and dynamics.  

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19 minutes ago, henry4841 said:

I watched this on youtube last week and low and behold right at the beginning I think I am seeing LaScala bottom ends with a big horn on top.

 

 Those look like Peavey SP-1's to me.

 

 

sp-1.jpg

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  • 4 months later...

Well, about three weeks ago I found out what was causing the excessive treble in my system. 

 

About a year ago or so I got some Tripp Lite Isobar surge protectors. During that time I noticed that tube rolling wasn't jiving with what I had tried in the past and certain types of gear as well. The other thing like I mentioned earlier was on my Scott 222c tube integrated I normally have the treble knob at 0. After the Tripp Lite Isobar, I had the treble knob at -2.

 

I'm always changing gear so it wasn't clear what was going on until recently I changed the surge protector and got the Furman SS6B Pro 6 plug surge protector strip and BAM everything was back to normal and man was that Tripp Lite degrading my sound quality! 

 

Glad I straightened this out. 

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On 3/10/2022 at 12:35 AM, Subtle Sam said:

I’m 45 years old and have been pretty rough on my ears, playing in bands, working construction and listening to loud music. I was thinking about this topic as well but more in relation to the Klipsch “sound” and how some people describe it as shouty or harsh. 
 

I was wondering if maybe Klipsch is more popular with the 40+ crowd. And, if so, could it be because our mature ears appreciate a bit more high end to compensate for hearing loss? Is it possible younger people think Klipsch sound harsh because their hearing is still pristine?
 

You got it Same work exp here. 🙂

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