"My Hearing isn't all that good, so ..." [Rant]

Where he rants a bit !

I want to reveal something to you about Hi Fi.  You can hear the difference between poor quality sound, good quality sound, state-of-the-art quality sound, and live music.

Really.

You don't need special training or have some sort of genetic gift (So-called "Golden Ears").  I will further say, that my hearing is not as good as people of my age and I can clearly make out differences, too.

So I am always a little puzzled (in the eye-roll kind of way) when someone says "My hearing is not that good, so I wouldn't be able to tell the difference."  It sounds more like an excuse than a reason, perhaps thinking it is all about the emperor's new clothes, or that the differences between a $150/pr mass market speakers and a $3000/pr of speakers designed to reproduce music accurately is beyond the grasp of a normal mortal.  It'll be easy to tell the difference between them. 

I have seen some prices that take my breath away - and made me wonder what they were thinking.  Or that their business might be servicing less than 1000 people in the world well heeled enough to afford their wares and care enough about sound quality to do it - but never once have I thought I wasn't equipped to tell if they were better or worse than something else - because that never happened.  You shouldn't either.  I have been offended by the price, or thought they were smoking something because something half their price or even lower beat them for what I was after - but the differences were usually pretty clear.

This could be yours! :-)

If someone would say "I could feel that there was a complete holographic presence of my favorite singer right in front of me, and I would pass that system up if it was more than $X" I would respect that more.

But, then ... how about putting your money where your mouth is then, mister?

High end audio has to be experienced to be understood.  And getting into it may be less than you think.

Me blogging about it.  Someone talking about it in a magazine, or another blog, podcast or conversation - if you don't "get it" or think they are crazy, you need to experience it in order to understand.

Because when everything is set up properly - and the source material is high quality - you will be amazed at how realistic it sounds.  And the magic is the midrange.  It's not the bass, it's not the treble (though good smooth accurate version of both are always welcome and how well they do those usually is the main cost driver in the audiophile world's speakers) it's the midrange where most music happens.  [And incidentally why Bose speakers will "wow" people at first, but when they get those systems home they rarely listen to music through them - because the midrange isn't good on them at all - and frankly for the amount they charge, you can put together something that smokes them for sound quality for the same amount of cash]

I'd recommend to arrange for a demo of some kind - if you have a friend who has a setup - see if you can have a listen.  If you are near a dealer of such things - call them and ask to understand what's possible (and be up front with them if you have no intention of buying anything - and be flexible and polite since there isn't a sale) - they may be able to accommodate you - many are enthusiasts, and if the sound gets it hooks into you, you may just save up and splurge at some point.

So my answer to those statements is simple:

You will hear a significant and profound difference - even if your hearing "isn't what it used to be."
And if you are skeptical, it is likely you have never heard what good sound reproduction can do - so work to fix that!