Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?
 

Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?

Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?
 

Well, I'm only a year behind you and it really depends. If its for just
yourself, of course.
I suppose first one has to get ears cleaned out, then get the hearing
tested, then go and listen to stuff live you want to experience, and then
see what sounds right to you.


I was not too bad until the 1980s when I had a couple of encounters with
lightening strikes. Over the next years I have got some tinnitus and a
little imbalance, so although I do not really need loud sound, I do like it
a little louder to put the in head sounds back in the mix. There is top
roll off, above 10k, sound is more a pressure than audible. I used to be all
the way up to around 17khz, which meant, unfortunately that some sounds like
air brakes on large trucks were very painful. Not any more!
So I doubt we are going to work for hi fi mags, but for our personal use,
then speakers are still very different.
I will also say that there does seem to be a great lack of really good
audio of more popular music these days, and many radio stations are sadly
compressed to hell and have digital bit rate artefacts and compression phase
issues.
Even CDs from reputable companies seem to have very poor dynamics.
Brian

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"Bill Wright" wrote in message
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Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?

Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?
 

On 29/04/2018 00:32, Bill Wright wrote:

Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?

For weight, colour, size, sorts of connectors, I don't see why not.

What else matters unless you have an anechoic room, don't move, don't
breathe, don't drink, don't eat, don't cough, don't sneeze and don't fart?

Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?
 

In article , Bill Wright
wrote:
Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?

You can certainly assess which ones you may prefer or dislike when
comparing them playing the kinds of music, etc, you want to hear.

Did you want to do something else?

Jim

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Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?
 

On 29/04/2018 08:37, Norman Wells wrote:
On 29/04/2018 00:32, Bill Wright wrote:

Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?

For weight, colour, size, sorts of connectors, I don't see why not.

What else matters unless you have an anechoic room, don't move, don't
breathe, don't drink, don't eat, don't cough, don't sneeze and don't fart?

Oh, I forgot don't have a wife, don't have a dog, don't have kids or
other relatives, don't have neighbours, don't have a postman, and don't
have a phone.

Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?
 

In message , Bill Wright
writes
Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?

Speakers traditionally used to claim to have a range of from 20 Hz to 20
kHz. I believe the typical person of our age can't hear any frequencies
higher than about 8 kHz. I once found a website that would play sounds
of different frequencies to allow one to assess how high a frequency one
could hear. Of course that would rather depend on how good the PC's
speakers were.
--
John Hall
"Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history
that man can never learn anything from history."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?
 

On Sunday, 29 April 2018 00:32:45 UTC+1, wrote:
Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?

For yourself obviously yes.

These days almost all speakers will be +/- 3dB from ~35Hz to 20kHz. This corresponds to the hearing range of a young adult.

By one's 60's one's range has contracted a bit, particularly at the top end, however have a listen and see / hear what YOU like. You can be fairly sure that younger visitors will be able to hear what you can't any more.

Other factors for speakers: -

RMS rating - unless you like music deafeningly loud most modern speakers will produce ample output.

Sensitivity - how much sound you get for your signal - basically a measure of efficiency, but might mean you can use a smaller amp (I have a Sony SRT-DN-800 AV-amp, which gives 100W per channel (more than enough) as I have a big room and satellite speakers in the conservatory), something smaller ample in a typical house.

Impedance - almost all are 8 ohms now.

Ignore gimmicks like bi-mode wiring.

The trend is towards power amplification being in the speakers (as in sub-woofers for some time now).

Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?
 

Brian Gaff wrote:

There is top roll off, above 10k, sound is more a pressure than
audible. I used to be all the way up to around 17khz

I can hear tones from 20Hz to 14kHz, there's roll-off at either end
which I don't know how to apportion between my ears and the
speakers/headphones. I'm 53.

Although I can hear them, they only sound like actual tones between say
28Hz and 11kHz, below is just a flutter and above is just a hiss.

Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?
 

LF end is interesting as really low frequencies only exist in a space big
enough for them, otherwise they tend to frequency double or sound peaky. I
do have a sub woofer and it seems to not matter where in the room it is, as
its not detectable in any directional sense.
yes the hiss pressure effect at hf is interesting. I'm guessing the
tinnitus is due to the loud bang of the strikes since I was deaf for nearly
an hour afterwards in that kind of ears full of water kind of way.
Brian

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"Andy Burns" wrote in message
...
Brian Gaff wrote:

There is top roll off, above 10k, sound is more a pressure than audible.
I used to be all the way up to around 17khz

I can hear tones from 20Hz to 14kHz, there's roll-off at either end
which I don't know how to apportion between my ears and the
speakers/headphones. I'm 53.

Although I can hear them, they only sound like actual tones between say
28Hz and 11kHz, below is just a flutter and above is just a hiss.

Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?
 

You forgot one. Don't read Russ Andrews adverts.
Brian

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"Norman Wells" wrote in message
...
On 29/04/2018 00:32, Bill Wright wrote:

Can I, aged 69, really assess hi-fi speakers?

For weight, colour, size, sorts of connectors, I don't see why not.

What else matters unless you have an anechoic room, don't move, don't
breathe, don't drink, don't eat, don't cough, don't sneeze and don't fart?