Hearing Loss Due to Age
Normal hearing loss due to ageing consists of a gradual decrease in high frequency sensitivity over time. The chart is from Modern Sound Reproduction by Harry F. Olson. It shows the average hearing loss Vs age for men and women at frequencies from 250 Hz to 8000 Hz. This means that for a man at age 35, sensitivity is down about 11 dB at 8000 Hz. For a woman at that age, sensitivity is down only about 5 dB. This varies, of course, from person to person but we can infer that sensitivity is down even further at 20kHz.
However, all is not lost for listening enjoyment, as you get older. There are many aspects of listening that can still be valid if you have not been exposed to excessive sound levels for long periods during your lifetime. Distortion, particularly intermodulation distortion, can still be heard through much of the frequency range. Stereo depth and spaciousness can still be perceived as well as smoothness of response in the range that has no or little loss. In fact, the only limiting factor is the inability to perceive very high frequencies, which is a small part of the overall listening scenario. Aged hearing does not normally cut off sharply but is a gradual rolloff. It means that comparisons, even at higher frequencies, can still be made to some degree. For instance, the amount of highs can be compared between two speakers but judgment cannot be made on which speaker has the most accurate highs and best overall frequency balance. Often, persons with a high frequency hearing loss will favor speakers or other equipment with exaggerated highs to compensate. Persons with hearing damage, in addition to loss from ageing, are more handicapped.
It is not unusual to experience distortion created by the ear mechanism. This is particularly true at the middle frequencies. Sometimes this distortion sounds like subharmonics of a tone. An example is when I attended a private concert and there was a solo opera singer. I sat about 50 away in the audience. She could sing very loud and with some notes I could hear the subharmonics in my ears. My reaction was that I didn’t think I would want to be married to this woman!
Roger Russell.
Author, Artist, Engineer, Inventor, Photographer, Collector, and formerly
Director of Acoustic Researchat McIntosh Laboratory, Inc. and the originator of
McIntosh Loudspeakers
However, all is not lost for listening enjoyment, as you get older. There are many aspects of listening that can still be valid if you have not been exposed to excessive sound levels for long periods during your lifetime. Distortion, particularly intermodulation distortion, can still be heard through much of the frequency range. Stereo depth and spaciousness can still be perceived as well as smoothness of response in the range that has no or little loss. In fact, the only limiting factor is the inability to perceive very high frequencies, which is a small part of the overall listening scenario. Aged hearing does not normally cut off sharply but is a gradual rolloff. It means that comparisons, even at higher frequencies, can still be made to some degree. For instance, the amount of highs can be compared between two speakers but judgment cannot be made on which speaker has the most accurate highs and best overall frequency balance. Often, persons with a high frequency hearing loss will favor speakers or other equipment with exaggerated highs to compensate. Persons with hearing damage, in addition to loss from ageing, are more handicapped.
It is not unusual to experience distortion created by the ear mechanism. This is particularly true at the middle frequencies. Sometimes this distortion sounds like subharmonics of a tone. An example is when I attended a private concert and there was a solo opera singer. I sat about 50 away in the audience. She could sing very loud and with some notes I could hear the subharmonics in my ears. My reaction was that I didn’t think I would want to be married to this woman!
Roger Russell.
Author, Artist, Engineer, Inventor, Photographer, Collector, and formerly
Director of Acoustic Researchat McIntosh Laboratory, Inc. and the originator of
McIntosh Loudspeakers