Okay I'll get rid of it :p.
The kind of music appreciation you get from playing music, listening a lot to real life music, or just having very developed auditory perception, is not perfectly identical to what you might learn from listening critically to gear. What I think they have in common is, to appreciate nuances either in gear or music, requires self-observation. A musician plays in a constant self-correcting feedback loop of perception and action to express music. Someone who critically listens to real life music has to remain objective and detached from his prejudices and observe the effects of the music on him. Someone who listens critically to gear has to contend with not only his prejudices, but also the recording process, and the sound characteristics imposed by his gear. So imo, it's actually more difficult to learn to listen critically to gear, but can be done, just requires more effort, trial and error. This is why I have utmost respect for audio DIY'ers, they are likely the ones with the most critical listening ability.
