Are you too old to be an audiophile?

Audiophile and the quality of LISTENING does not depend entirely on the flat frequency response from 20hz to 20khz.
Plenty of Golden ears have damaged hearing, and can still hear better than most folks with perfect hearing.
Being an Audiophile does not mean HEARING, it means LISTENING.

The main thing to remember about aging, and I'm 70, is that what really matters is how does the music sound to YOU. I was in construction all my life, can't hear above 12Khz, and yet I enjoy the music as well as I always did. Or so I think! Everything in life is a compromise eventually, so I often wonder at what point the high-end gear goes bye-bye, and listening to music on mid-fi gear is satisfactory?

Everything is relative - ie. You go to the Symphony take in a stunning performance, if your 18 or your 81 it does not make a diference, you hear it your way, if truely great it will move you. Same way with your system, a great piece of music will move you, if you are 18 or if your 81, the reference is the same.

Yes, until all listeners, age five to ninety, provide a certified hearing test done by an audiologist that their hearing is functioning at 20hz to 20khz. Until that is in place, all will be labeled 'wanabe's, and not taken seriously, but they will be permitted to 'listen'. Only those with this audiophile certification will be permitted to write reviews of equipment. Call it practicing with a license. That way we all will know that they can actual 'hear', as opposed to what they think they hear. I am in the process of setting myself up as the 'authority' and will be receiving your hearing test and issuing certificates, all of which will be expensive, as this is the 'hi end'.

Who cares about the sound or the music, anyway!

I just like expensive and exotic electronic devices and reading and writing about them.

Cheers,