Basically, I’m semi-deaf, constant ringing in the ears, so pretty much anything and everything I use would be considered mid-range, but I want to get into the more technical side of audiophile equipment, but I have zero clue how, or what brands are considered a safe bet for a noob.
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what are you trying to accomplish? If you want to enjoy audio as a technical hobby there are many ways to do that and it can be quite rewarding. my hearing is not great -many years in a very noisy environment but I do enjoy listening, I build some diy speakers and turntable plinths and spent a lot of time on diyaudio.com I use measurement and listening to get the speakers the way I want them to sound and it is a great hobby. It is one of those hobbies where you will never master it but you can learn to accept the compromises of physics involved. If you are more electronically inclined you can build amps or even turntables.
THIS is what I was looking for. I wanted to find programs that let’s me edit speaker audio/see stats for it’s frequency, or whatever the technical terms are. (I’m still researching.)
One interesting place to start might be to build a kit. Bottlehead is famous for their highly regarded OTL tube headphone amplifier kit, the Bottlehead Crack. It pairs superbly with high impedance headphones, the Sennheiser HD650’s being the classic example.
It’s a relatively simple assembly job that requires soldering skills, which can be learned while building the kit, and the ability to use a multi meter to read voltages and resistance. Also easy to learn. As well as care and patience. The instruction manual is excellent and their online community is active, friendly and helpful. They have talked thousands of folks through the process. It’s a great way to learn about audio.
This will expose you to a lot of different technical aspects of audio. And you will end up with one of the best headphone amplifiers available for under $1000k.
Depending on what semi deaf means I would look into what you actually like to listen to. You might need some speakers with a “shrill” top end or at least a pronounced top end, depending on your hearing damage. And probably also a lot of bass so a subwoofer is probably also good for you.
My response would be no different even if it were someone with better hearing.
When choosing high-end audio gear, always rely on your own hearing and test different setups with music you know well, since what sounds good is personal. Also, getting tips from audiophile user groups forums, checking the warranty and customer service, and knowing how your room affects sound are key to making a good choice.I don’t really think my opinion on what sounds good is correct even if it’s just an opinion, I have cheap ~$20 speakers and I think they sound really good, but…it’s a $20 speaker there’s no way it’s objectively good. I definitely will check out the other stuff, though.
I have considerable high frequency hearing loss and wear hearing aids but have always love high quality audio systems. My wife (who has great hearing and a can play the piano by ear) and I did a bunch of a/b test when shopping for our system. Our notes when shared after we were done showed we generally agreed on what sounded best.
Even if your hearing is bad, listen to a lot of equipment and buy what sounds best to you.
Just keep researching and reading, albeit only from reliable sources. Stay away from YT videos with no credibility or Reddit posts talking highly of unknown stuff. Rely on science and d stay away from Snake Oil.
That’s how most of us got into it before we started buying anything serious or expensive!
Can you link these reliable sources?
depends on how rough your hearing is
if it’s in really bad shape, something like this might be fun: https://subpac.com/what-is-the-subpac/
a lot of techno mix engineers swear by them
Areas to research Crutchfield for some basics, stereophile.com, https://www.audiophil-online.com/
I can’t hear past 17khz but I still manage to record, mix and master music and I think I’m pretty good at it
Id say frequencies are pretty useless past 16-17khz for music. People say it adds air but if you can’t hear it I don’t understand. We are all tuned for voice anyways so most people could appreciate quality there, while not hearing 12khz+. The only times i’ve been like wow its nice to have 17khz + is when there is a recording of a TV and you hear the high pitch noise from it.
You don’t have to have perfect hearing to learn how to listen humans can hear a maximum between 20hz and 20khz
That being said the frequency 8khz sounds like bacon sizzling by the time you get to 13kz it sorta starts to hurt or feel uncomfortable 15khz I just now had to point speaker in my phone at my head to hear it over the sound of my TV 17 i can just barely hear but it makes me wildly uncomfortable…
There’s just not alot of musical information up in those higher ranges… mostly “airyness”. Hi fi systems are so incredibly better than consumer grade stuff. You would have to have serious hearing damage to not be floored by nice monitors.
💰 money talks when it comes to hi fi gear… just make sure to try before you buy… I have adam ax7s at home and it one of the best investments I ever made… the successor to the adam ax7s have a built in reference mic that calculates your room dimensions and adjusts the speakers to automatically account for phase correlation, standing waves and first reflections. Great place to start… if you don’t have much cash the presonis eris 3.5s system is really great for close monitoring.
I would steer clear of rokits. Try before you buy !