Comment Re:Modern audiophiles are no different. (Score 1) 469
When I was in my early 20s while doing an aviation medical they actually did the proper hearing test with an instrument designed for the job. I don't remember the exact details, but the doctor said my hearing rolled off around 17kHz or so. Now at age 41, a short while ago I thought 'hmm, I wonder...' and plugged in a decent set of headphones into my signal generator, set it to sine, and turned the dial. My left ear is still good for 15.5kHz, my right ear though rolls off at 14kHz.
I was at my Dad's house fixing an amplifier for him, and I had my signal generator along so I could make a nice continuous input signal while tracing the fault. Once the fault was found I turned the dial up and down, and discovered my Dad's hearing rolls off at only 8kHz (he's in his mid 60s). I think a lot of that was due to him working in factories when younger without hearing protection (I think it was only in the late 70s they started insisting on ear defenders) and racing motorcycles.
The trouble is on my mother's side all the older generation are pretty deaf. I hope I've inherited their healthy longevity but without the deafness. (My grandfather blamed his deafness on test flying Liberators - he was an aircraft mechanic and was always on test flights on repaired aircraft - with no hearing protection during the war. However I noticed he had a really odd form of hearing loss - he was almost deaf to my aunt going on about complete trivia, but his ears were as good as ever at hearing words related to aircraft.....)