learning to listen

I'm sure most of you have had the experience of telling someone of your passion of listening to your high-end audio system and the other party remarks, "I have a tin ear and couldn't hear the difference."
A simple conversation came up in the office today relating to stiff necks as a result of talking on the phone. I suggested switching the phone to the other ear. The response was that they could not hear the phone conversation as well out of the other ear, besides they they were not able to write if needed with their other hand. I am able to confirm this observation. When listening to my music system at home, I don't feel that i have a bias as to one ear or the other, but on the phone, I can find that it only sounds correct from my left ear. I am right handed. Why is this? I believe that listening on the phone or otherwise is a learned experience. It should sound the same from one ear to the other if you have no hearing defects but the reality is that for everyone I have asked it isn't so. So, it would appear that the increased sensitivity required to clearly hear a phone conversation is a universally "learned" experience and that any person is capable of also learning to appreciate the benefits of a so called high-end audio system. The claim of the tin ears is vastly over rated. If you can concentrate enough to understand a phone conversation, you can train your ears/brain to appreciate a fine music system. I can not explain otherwise why the phone sounds totally different from one ear to the other but everything else is in natural balance other than the learned experience of talking on the phone with my left ear since childhood. If the average "Joe" can hear and talk on the minature cell phones, he can certainly be trained to appreciate the better quality audio components on the market.

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