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The original was posted on /r/audiophile by /u/Remarkable_Gain6430 on 2023-08-07 20:47:55+00:00.

Hello.

An old pal of mine has suddenly decided he’s an audiophile. He’s a few months younger than I, at the age of 59. Yes, were properly old and of zero value to society.

My pal talks of nothing now other than his hifi equipment, and it’s becoming incessantly tedious. I’ve tried to steer the conversation to other topics but he always brings it back to his hifi gear. Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t mind discussing that occasionally. I like audio clarity and fidelity. I grew up with crappy cassette players.and rubbish record players, so getting a decent hifi was always on my list of conspicuous consumption items. All of this leads into something that was sparked when my pal mentioned 24 but audio sounding much better than 16 bit. It occured to me that as we age our hearing range decreases significantly. It’s a pretty steep drop off after forty, as well, with peak frequencies for my age group at ~12,000 hz So is it worth dropping a wad of cash on hifi at this advanced age if the gain is at best nominal?