Comment by em500
7 years ago
The reverse is overwhelmingly more likely. For 8khz+ frequencies (where most compression takes place) your hearing declines pretty quickly once you hit 30 years. Whatever real compression differences you're hearing at 20 will be largely gone 10 years later, and almost certainly 20 years later.
Notch Inhibition Induces Cochlear Hair Cell Regeneration and Recovery of Hearing after Acoustic Trauma
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S089662731...
Stick to FLAC and keep your fingers crossed for cochlear regeneration tech ;)
But in 20 years there will be new 20-year-olds. And one day there may be 40-year-olds that didn't damage their hearing with leaf blowers and rock concerts. And there may be a future compression algorithm so good that no one can tell, but you need a lossless original to take advantage of it.
Not quite 30 -> 55+ is where we would expect to see presbycusis,
And even though you may have diminished hearing you still have awareness of frequencies above 8Khz.
At 30 we're looking at typically 5db loss over 8khz, at 40 more than 10db. Sure, we're not talking about total hearing loss, but the reduced sensitivity is going to overwhelm any real artifacts from 16/44 that one might have genuinely detected at 20.
Imagined artifacts will probably remain or might even increase though, since people typically have much higher spending power at 40. :)
Any evidence of this?
I worked in audiology for my entire 30's and tested my own hearing (biocalibration) once a week.
Never once saw a reduction in my hearing thresholds (250Hz - 8kHz)
Nor have I read any supporting documentation that agrees with a reduction of 8kHz thresholds before the age of 55.
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