What you wrote is completely true.
My 15 year-old daughter frequently surprises me when she tells she was
able to hear a 'faint' high frequency tone, that of an old casio quartz
watch, whichever the place we are. I must be inside of a silent room,
not too big and preferable out of the city, to be able to perceive that
alarm tone.
But I think there is more when listening to music, than the hearing ability.
IMHO, the brain 'fills' what the cochlea is no more able to input.
The cilia in the cochlea die, mainly due to acoustic abuse but also due
to atherosclerosis of the inner-ear blood vessels.
Same reason as why the hearing range for men worsens more quickly than
the hearing range for women - and why men die at an earlier age.
I care of my hearing ability as much as I care of my teeth - yes Chuck,
we shall not discuss astatines again (I'm about to switch to
rosuvastatine soon), right? :-)
What I strictly avoid is using those plug-in headphones in the street or
anywhere, I refuse to use a .mp3 file for music (Apple helped regarding
this decision), I prefer to stay in silent places if I can choose it,
and -mainly- I don't listen to music everyday, nor at high volume. When
I do, well, I sit to listen to music and nothing else. Why 250 - 300
W/Ch? Amps able to deliver such an amount of power are better
constructed, therefore they distort less and have an amazing dynamic
range. Of course, I take my exceptions - sometimes I feel in the mood
for turning that volume knob clockwise ... :-)
So far, I am able to distinguish between compressed .mp3 music, as I am
able to distinguish between those two CDPlayers in my first pano - not
that the Yamaha is bad, the Meridian is awesome !
Thanks a lot for those links, I'll read them right now.
What I wrote above is what I think is true up to this moment, only.
Being a psychiatrist myself, my hearing ability is very very important :-)
Fernando.
Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> For audio, time needs to run in reverse to better relate hearing and
> income. Your peak hearing ability occurs at about age 19 which is at
> the wrong end of the income scale. After you retire your hearing has
> deteriorated so much that you'll never be able to hear the difference in
> what you're then able to afford. :-)
>
> From this page <http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/ChrisDAmbrose.shtml>
> "The range of hearing for a healthy young person is 20 to 20,000 hertz.
> The hearing range of humans gets worse with age. People lose the ability
> to hear sounds of high frequency as they get older. The highest
> frequency that a normal middle-aged adult can hear is only 12-14
> kilohertz. Also, the hearing range for men worsens more quickly than the
> hearing range for women."
>
> And for research on causes:
> <http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Health/6-02-10-HearingAbilityasWeAge.htm>
>
> Chuck Norcutt
>
>
> Willie Wonka wrote:
>
>> You guyses are nutz...:)
>>
>> Seriously, doesn't it hurt?
>>
>> My system is 2X100W and I never pass the ten percent of power, where
>> it starts feeling uncomfortable. Wasnt the power needed just so the
>> amp would be able to faithfully reproduce the whole dynamic range?
>> If so isnt something like 100-120W enuf?
>>
>> No wonder why you need bomshelters, otherwise there is the danger of
>> the ceiling falling on your head...:)
>>
>> I too have sound absorbing material on the walls at home, but my time
>> alone room dozent look nearly as nice as Fernando's. One day...when
>> I retire...I have no idea what my system would look like, but would
>> definately include a homebrewed Quad 405 for listening to my about
>> 200 and growing collection of vinyl records.
>>
>> Boris
>>
--
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