I think a quote from the aviator captures this idea:


Howard Hughes: Does that look clean to you?
Ava Gardner: Nothing's clean, Howard. But we do our best, right?

Howard is the audiophile, Ava the "norm".

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I keep reading how no one has a 'golden ear',but when I see tales like this one told,and have seen a few just like it play out in front of my very eyes,I wonder,maybe most of the people on here (including me) do have them (some people have better vision then some,others are color blind,etc....) Then again,maybe its just a matter of having a trained ear.But my gut tells me that is not it.

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Personally, I don't believe in the golden ear theory, but lets assume for the moment there is a such a thing.

Is it a blessing or a curse?

Discusss.......

I believe the ears (brain) can be trained to a certain degree, depending on genes etc.

And having "golden ears" could both be a blessing and a curse. I think this could be applied to musicians as well as audiophiles.

An example could be the very few people that have what is called Absolute Pitch (Wikipedia).

They can have problems with music being played in a non-standard pitch, because it will be out of tune with their natural center.

Other people see notes as color. It is different how we hear sound, and IMO there is natural that there will be people with more "golden ears"/"golden brain" than others.

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I think this works better when you reverse the roles as you labeled them

Imod is inadequate source for such a fine set of cans you have DavidMahler. Amp too..

At least they know who Led Zeppelin is

*OT*
I'm sad! My EP-630 broke
*/OT*

Some may "acquire" the taste, but for the most part I think you either "get it" or you don't.

Once you get it, it's like a drug, drawing you further and further in. So, some of us are more subject to being "hooked".

Dave

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Just what I was thinking.

For people who have been listening to crap their whole life, I think audiophile sound is something that needs to be learned. These people only know bass, they don't understand mids and highs. Once they get it, I'm pretty sure they like the sound although it might not worth the money to hem.

Same with the OP, most of my non-audiophile friends didn't really like the HD650. They were also not sure whether they liked my DT531 and DT880. With the SR80 though, all my friends who tried it (they listen to jazz and rock) were shocked and said it was the best thing they've ever heard..

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I don't think so - Howard is the obsessive (staring at a 'clean' sink), Ava is (in this case) trying to explain that perfection is unattainable.

Like a germ-free world, absolutely perfect audio reproduction is for all intents and purposes impossible. Some people tolerate more imperfection than others. Whether or not you use level of tolerance of audio imperfection as a yardstick to measure the worth of individuals as a whole against is up to you.

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It's pretty sad to think of it that way. I know when I started out I thought the SR80's were incredible, although lacking in the base department.

Are we training our ears to like the sound out of higher and higher end cans? I know one thing it's not that often that I just listen and enjoy music anymore. I'm always critiquing the sound. Also find that most cds sound like crap.....

Enough of that I Love this hobby.

Couple days ago, I lend my new HFI 780 to a friend of mine, who had initially said that I spend too much money on headphones (I got mine fro around $200). After hearing HFI 780 on a low quality source, he liked them a lot. Then, after hearing it on a better quality source, he is actually thinking about buying one. He asked if there is anything a little smaller but has same degree of sound quality. I showed some phones around $300, and he is even considering to spend that much now. I actually have a lot of friend, including my girlfriend, who could notice nicer sound immediately. However, I also have a friend who used to be a musician who now listens music through his cell phone. I asked him "doesn't sound quality sucks on it?" And, his answer actually shocked me. He said he used have very expensive music equipments before, but not anymore because he listens to music Not Sound anymore. Again, I was amazed by his answer. After all, it's all in our brain, isn't it?

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I think his answer is something people should seriously think about before delving too deep in this hobby. If you're spending more time analyzing and reading about gear than listening to music, you are of course welcome to do so, but you aren't really what I'd call a music lover - you're a subspecies of technophile.

That in itself is fine, but when one's technophilia is used as an elitist prop I think some self reflection is in order. And yes, that is directed more or less at everyone that told the OP to "get new friends". Listen to your friends instead. They may just not be that in to music - or they may be far more interested in music than you are!

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Probably you don't understand it ether. It's not about mid or highs as much as it's not about bass. It's about musicality, and you can have it without top-notch highs, mids or bass. It's not about sounds, it's about music.