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Here, I found some for people to try:
http://www.npr.org/sections/th...
http://www.noiseaddicts.com/20...
http://www.mp3ornot.com/

> 10K is an easy limit for most according to the charts I saw.

I can only guess the charts you saw didn't account for age, and maybe you're counting the range that we can only barely hear if it's really loud. For the same detection rate you get for 1 watt at 2K, you might need 1000 watts at 10K.

I didn't do much research, I admit that freely. Here's one link with a graph, and here's another to tests.

The 10K test run on my system through crappy monitor speakers set at about 30% volume was easily heard rooms away in a quiet house. The 12K test could be heard, and the 14K+ annoyed my dogs. I guess that those monitor speakers aren't as crappy as I thought. :) So for me, at least, my drop off is somewhere around 12K. Then again, I've practiced hearing safety protection for years, even while mowing the yard, trying to compensate for a span of rather bad habits early on. Maybe it's working.

It's much easier and cheaper to make a good tweeter than to make a good woofer (or a good subwoofer). Try playing some deep bass or even some mid-bass and you will quickly determine whether you have crappy speakers. Just listen for the distortion.

> 10K is an easy limit for most according to the charts I saw.

I can only guess the charts you saw didn't account for age, and maybe you're counting the range that we can only barely hear if it's really loud. For the same detection rate you get for 1 watt at 2K, you might need 1000 watts at 10K.

I didn't do much research, I admit that freely. Here's one link with a graph, and here's another to tests.

The 10K test run on my system through crappy monitor speakers set at about 30% volume was easily heard rooms away in a quiet house. The 12K test could be heard, and the 14K+ annoyed my dogs. I guess that those monitor speakers aren't as crappy as I thought. :) So for me, at least, my drop off is somewhere around 12K. Then again, I've practiced hearing safety protection for years, even while mowing the yard, trying to compensate for a span of rather bad habits early on. Maybe it's working.

What is there to discuss? We know the reason is that the tubes sending the electricity to the speakers isn't wide enough.

Those poor North Koreans. If only sanctions weren't in place. Then they could purchase speaker cables that are worthy of their Dear Leader's praises:

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/20...

On second thought, let's open a window on the sanctions for this. Maybe we could bankrupt them as they trick-out their audio.

There's several sites (Ex. MP3 or Not and Noise Addicts) that have tests where you can find out if you can hear the difference between two different quality sound files on your equipment.

Generally, Lossless audio is like expensive wine or water. Ego drives people to find a difference much more than them actually being able to tell a difference.
If you take boxed wine or tap water and put it in a fancy, expensive looking bottle then have people compare them; there's a few experts and connoisseurs who can reliably tell they're the same but most people will say the liquid from the expensive bottle is superior.
Lossless audio has the same placebo effect. Tell people it's lossless and put it in a 100MB file and they'll be certain it sounds better than a 12MB compressed file. But there's really only a relative few people who can actually hear any difference.

As you get older, you hearing range drops from the "ideal" of 20K.
I just took this hearing test and discovered that my hearing is reduced to about 8K-10K max.
http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/can-you-hear-this-hearing-test/

Too many rock concerts when I was young and foolish?

There is no real "Stradivari magic", except in the head of some people. Stradivari made quality violins, as did Guarnieri and Bergonzi, around the same period. There's nothing magical about them, just quality materials and craftsmanship. Virtually all Stradivarius in use today have been heavily modified (different neck, different bridge, etc.) to bring them up to the quality and consistency that modern listeners and violinists demand. Double-blind tests show no preference for Stradivarius over other quality brands (both old and new).

Old instruments are worth a lot because the ones that survived usually have some history attached (ex., owned and played by famous artists), not because they sound better than (top quality) modern ones. People who go on about "the acoustic qualities of old wood" are just one step away from buying this or this.

And I'm pretty sure the GP was making a joke (i.e., labelled in the sense of "thought to be" vs. labelled in the sense of "someone stuck a label on them with 'Stradivarius' written on it").

Ted Nugent is a famous example over here. He made tons of money in his heydey in the 70s, but by 1980 he was bankrupt because his moneymen blew all his money on bad investments. He had a small comeback later though.

MC Hammer is another one: he just couldn't control his lavish spending.

Here's a whole list of mostly-American (and some British) musicians:
http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/07/musicians-file-bankruptcy-list/