# Speakers & Age (yours)



## Richard in Idaho (Dec 16, 2010)

After reading the replies to my earlier thread I have been doing research on speakers.
Someone said to look at direct sales speakers. Found that there are five company's within an easy days drive that sell direct.
I found the idea of full range drivers interesting. Since two of these are in Utah (ZU & Tekton) I plan to visit both after it warms up a bit
The full range speakers lead to my question.
I am 70 years old and my hearing appears to drop out at around 8,400 Hz. The tweeters in the Zu are filtered to play only above 10,000 Hz.

Does this mean that I will hear nothing from the tweeters? That is will the speakers sound the same if the tweeters were removed?
It would seem that there is no reason to pay for up grade tweeters if they add nothing to the sound.

Thanks for the past responses and any thing you can post here.


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## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

Well, if you are going to visit Zu, you are in a unique position to ask them to compare the regular and upgraded tweeters for you. Then you can decide based on the evidence provided by your own ears.

Kal


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## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

Richard,
If you are coming to Utah and plan to audition speakers, I'd suggest you also visit the RBH Sound facility in Layton.


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## hearingspecialist (Mar 15, 2010)

Question OP, when we test hearing threshold they are done at specific frequencies with typical audiometry ending at 8Khz. Did you have diagnostic High Frequency Audiometry done to specify the 8400hz roll off? With your age and having I would guess normal hearing out to 8Khz I would professionally say your doing really well with your hearing. Most people 55-75 yrs of age start having hearing loss that starts around 3-4K mainly because of ear canal resonance being averaged at 2700hz in adults. Hearing loss then proceeds to start dropping at around 2K at early onset with 3-4Khz being the worse frequencies. Now on to your question...

If your hearing is truly tested with audiologically calibrated equipment using law required ANSI standards, and your hearing starts to drop off after 8K your ZU speakers would probably sound just as awesome. If a person has normal hearing out to 8K the loss of hearing sensitivity and your perceived sound out of the speakers will be very minor in difference. Even if your down 10db in sensitivity at one octave above 8k which would then be 16K, those speakers are so super efficient that your listening pleasure shouldn't be compromised at all.:nerd:


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## Derry (Apr 10, 2010)

from another 70 year old audiophile,, if my test sounds are correct my hearing drops off right above the 12K hz level and starts decreasing around 10K,,

I have Magnepan 1.6QRs in my HT with Peter Gunn XOs and I know they go way higher than my hearing but I must say they are some of the best speakers I have listened to in many a year,, in my vinyl spinning room I still have my Altec VOTs (late 1960s + highly modified) and again they go way above my HZ level but still sound fantastic,,

as mentioned I would listen to several different speakers + manufactures and do not worry about how high they go for HZ but how well they sound on what you like to listen to,, even youngsters hear differently and vary for their taste in what they say sounds best,, since it is your $$$ buy what you like best and then just enjoy them,,

Derry

common sense is not common


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