That is good news! I would love to be able to hear those frequencies I am currently missing. I am in the dark as to how much I should raise the frequencies I am missing using Roon’s EQ…play it by ear? 
Just a word of caution. There is not a heap of musical information in those frequencies so I would be careful about too much boosting of them as it could introduce distortion. By all means experiment but it would be surprising if you discovered better enjoyment of the music. My guess is you would have difficulty in discerning any difference unless you boosted signals and introduced distortion.
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John, great post.
(I remember you from the Meridian forum back when we were both young.)
One comment on the age-related hearing loss issue:
I have been told that the issue of time accuracy, which Meridian and MQA, and Wilson, and Thiel and others emphasize, works with different mechanisms at the neurophysiological level, and these mechanisms do not weaken with age.
I am a big believer of the importance of time accuracy. Ok, that doesn’t mean that everybody who uses that phrase in their marketing does an equally good job of it, or of other important attributes.
And a cynic might observe that the people who told me that are in the business of selling such equipment.
But I have used Thiel and Meridian and Wilson speakers, and I certainly appreciate the time accuracy even at the age of 73.
I had a young friend visiting, an 18 year old aspiring jazz musician, he requested Oscar Peterson’s Night Train (recorded in 1963), and he made the same observation as I made: the most stunning thing is the realism of the percussion, and especially cymbals. Cymbals contain a lot of high frequency harmonics, you might think I would be losing those, but the accuracy of the timing of these harmonics was quite clear, both to me and to my young friend.
So the technology upgrade chain doesn’t have to end.
And remember the line by an old guy in some movie: “I intend the last check that I write to bounce”.
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Anders, I could not agree with you more. I have been preaching about the importance of the DAC to remove timing errors for some time now and, in the system here, have it nicely under control with first base being the G1 Auralic streamer which makes the job of the DAC easy.
My classical music listening (through speakers rather than phones) improved significantly when I started using hearing aids to compensate for higher frequency loss. Initially higher frequencies (eg violins, some voices) sounded slightly distorted but after a period of time my ears/ brain adapted and, with some judicious equalisation adjustments in the hearing aid app, the sound quality improved to an acceptable level.
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A wonderful post from a true audiophile that has been on a long journey. As a youngster of 67 I hope to stay on my own musical journey for many more years. I got my first real hi-fi back in the early 70’s and been improving on it over the years. I no longer have any hard media with all my CD’s ripped to my NAS in FLAC format. That and a Qobuz subscription keeps me happy. Of course ROON sorts it all out and helps me find new stuff.
Thank you John.
I do not listen to classical or jazz, where it seems there is more high-frequency content. But the thought of hearing details and nuances (?) in my music is intriguing. Does the EQ I have applied give you any thoughts?
Hi Sarah, how big is your SACD collection please? I’m 67 and have a total of 3 SACD’s I am new to this format and have a Marantz SACD player but it’s had to end there, I’m finding them very expensive as a retiree on a forces pension, I scour all the ads for SACD’s but always seem to miss them, it’s not that I have obscure music tastes I think many people have squirrelled them away and forgotten about them.
Good to see that you were inspired to write after a ten month gap.
Keep on listening, it’s great for the soul.
Nick
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What a fabulous post. An inspirational example of the important role music can play in our lives, and how Roon can help. Thank you so much for sharing - loved reading about your experience.
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Hi Nick, I have about 50 SACDs collected early on when the format was new. I haven’t bought one since Blue Coast Music started releasing DSD files to stream. Tell me your tastes iand I’ll send you some of my SACDs! I have some classical, some jazz, Dylan, some other rock as well. I too started with a Marantz SACD player—the SA-1 which was the best sounding CD player I ever owned. After many years the laser died and I found a used SA-11 that I still have. Built like tanks, wonderful warm sound. Im serious about giving you some SACDs! Just pay shipping!
Dear Sarah,
Ive removed details before i get into trouble
Nick
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Ditto above
Thanks Nick I am in Virginia, in the greater Washington DC metro area. Email is [moderated].
Let me go review my collection—as you suspected, they have seen little use in recent years.
Maybe do this by PM publishing your email and address is asking for abuse !!!
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Thanks, not used to this hi tech stuff LoL removed much of it. Thanks Mike
Nick & Sarah - best to communicate via the Private Message function of the forum first, rather than publish your emails for all (and spambots) to see… Thanks.
Lovely post John. Echoes my experience – though I’m a bit younger and will now live with hope that my recently-tested hearing won’t deteriorate over time!
John, thank you for your post. I, like you find Roon to be a a great gift and a huge enhancement for both my collection and music system in all the ways you enumerated. I appreciate you taking the time to so fully and capably expressing how I feel about Roon.
Great post John inspiring thanks.