By the time he reached his teens, the upper limit of his hearing had dropped to 20,000 cycles. Now he hears nothing above 8000, and, if he reaches the age of 80, that will be down to about 4000. He will then hear conversation reasonably well in a quiet place, but may have difficulty in a noisy area. He will hear low tones better than high tones. He also has a decibel loss.
Decibels measure sound intensity at any particular frequency.
Thus, a whisper from four feet away in a quiet room ranks at about 30 decibels, normal conversation about 60, a rock band 120, and a shotgun 140. With any structure as complex as mine, a great deal can go wrong. Drum punctures are frequent but, fortunately, most such punctures heal themselves or can be repaired by an operation. Tinnitus or ringing in the ears, is another source of trouble. Once the causative factor is tracked down and eliminated, I sometimes case my racket.