"I Trust My Ears"

I trust my ears = only way to find what subjectively resonates with me.  But it doesn’t mean to only try once then draw conclusions although this may apply on some occasions.

Building trust in my ears likely stem from experience from many demos.  Starting out late in our high end audio hobby, my strategy was to demo the best gear based on reviews, then try to recreate favored Sonics within my budget.  Attended many audio shows and brick n mortar stores.  Many had great Sonics, but very few resonated (pulled me in, hard to leave) with me.

If one is not trusting their ears, perhaps they have not demoed enough to know the playing field aka what Sonics to target.

Another possibility is that our moods greatly affects our engagement in our audio systems including boredom.  I mitigate this through variety- different systems (SS/tube, analog, digital) and components (various carts, amps…)

Continue from below my post,

I am tired today because my ear state is un-natural. When my ears are un-natural sound state, even every natural sounds sound un-natural to me (until my ears become normal) and that induces “the listener’s fatigue.” That saying, audiophiles are living with “the listener’s fatigue” when they listen hi-fi audio and normal natural sound environment. These un-natural sounds (inducing tiredness) are everywhere there are audio speakers. So, they have no chance to be normal unless they go vacation in mountain for few days. Many a’philes a taking these tiredness as norm since they are in un-natural sound state all their lives. Are your eyes dilated constantly? Alex/Wavetouch

devinplomber

You started what has ended up an interesting thread, here are my 2 cents. Yes I now trust my ability to find the sound I like best, and which gear does a better job of doing that......which are improvements, and which are just "different". That however is with training them or learning what I like over the last 4 years of intense work. I don't really care if it's the ears, or recording, or brain, or colored sound, or whatever. I now know what I like, and can generally pick that out with regularity.

Sometimes I get fooled for a short time, but usually get it right. I try it, removed it, try it again, remove it, and try it again, remove it, wait a while and try it again.....because I mostly subscribe to a "First thought wrong" philosophy. Case in point B & W and Focal speakers, their detail sounds magical for short periods.....but takes all of the joy out of the music for me, and shortened my listening time.

I do take into account other's opinions, like those found here on Agon, some reviewers, and at trade shows which I attend as much as I can......but always follow it up with my own personal listen in my system or systems I know well. The only 2 pieces of gear I've bought without listening to (or on audition) were my Clayton Shaw Caladan speakers which I love, and my Aric Audio gear (which every piece has been brilliant across the board). I've found that if 15 out of 15 people say Joseph Audio, Fritz, Revival, Pure Audio Project, or Volti speakers are really good, then that is at least might be a place to start.....same has happened with many brands of gear.

I don't know. I just buy my gear according to what Amir says and look at its measurements all night. That's fine with me. Also, my doctor says I'm half deaf but my engineering degree says otherwise. So there's that.... 

Sometimes I get fooled for a short time, but usually get it right. I try it, removed it, try it again, remove it, and try it again, remove it, wait a while and try it again.....because I mostly subscribe to a "First thought wrong" philosophy. Case in point B & W and Focal speakers, their detail sounds magical for short periods.....but takes all of the joy out of the music for me, and shortened my listening time.

@vthokie83 I really like this. It articulates the uncertainty and fickleness inherent to the process. How not all differences are good, and how a positive trait may eventually turn out to be a negative one given time. 

I respect that.

Compare the honesty of this statement with the usual "as I moved up and upgraded to the next level in their lineup, the improvement in my system was profound at every step" tripe. But I digress.

I am not at a point - I almost wrote "sadly" - where I choose to undertake that painstaking search for the last few percentage points. I am still focused on improving my core system and my sources, so I feel that turning my attention elsewhere would be distracting and maybe even misleading at this point.

Maybe someday. 

Until then, thank you for a thoughtful post.