Expert Pro 440 vs. 1000

[David A]

For an old ‘un my ears are not bad at all. To be honest, I have little interest in what level of kHz my ears can attain and am highly unlikely to bolt on power cleansers or even more exotic cables to my system, I originally bought the Devialet to allow me to have AV and HiiFi without masses of boxes and wires. I had heard the Devialet and was blown away with its sound so with its configurability it ticked the right boxes at the right time. Without any hope of getting technical the 1000 cleansed and extended the sound I could get within my own available kHz range. Other ears may vary significantly.

I'm largely with you. The last time I had my ears tested some years ago my hearing was pretty good for someone my age but of course the tests didn't go above 7-8 kHz anyway. Importantly I had little loss in the midrange which is where noise related damage shows up as I said, and I don't listen at loud levels.

Basically we work with the ears we have and one thing I have found over the years is that I've become a better listener. A lot of what we notice, or what we miss, comes down to paying attention or not paying attention and in some ways I notice more in the music I listen to these days than I did years ago. Age may take slowly away our high frequency range but experience and a better ability to pay attention to what we're hearing can come with age. The news isn't all bad. The glass may be half empty, but the half full that's left is some pretty good stuff that can improve as it ages if we take good care of it.