When we consider whether audiophiles have analytical ears and/or can remember sound qualities for lengthy periods of time (i.e. much more than a few seconds), let's consider two professions whose skill with sound is undeniable: (1) musicians, and (2) instrument makers.
Musicians will tell you that producing a good sound is primarily about having a good ear. There's a misconception that producing a good sound is primarily about muscle control or something like that. But it's the ear that guides the production of sound.
I used to work for NASA in the spacecraft navigation section, as a programmer of software tools. Our job was to get the robotic spacecraft to the right place on the right planet (say a particular crater on Mars). The biggest, most important part of the job was figuring out "where is this spacecraft right now?" We used Doppler shift and range, inferred from the radio signal, to get a handle on that. If you don't know where you are, you can't go where you want.
Likewise a musician has to perceive what their sound is like in *this moment*. Furthermore, they have to perceive how it varies from prior moments. It requires a good memory for sound, and in particular for small changes in sound. That's because to get where you want to go, you get there by small changes. To navigate you must have a good sense of where you are, today, and how that compares to yesterday.
Same with instrument builders who are prized for the sound of their instruments.
I regard the fact that we have great musicians and great instruments, going back centuries (before the days of recordings) as proof that aural memory is long-lasting in a trained person.