This subject shouldn't be controversial at all if you approach it with logic. Every time you hear anything, you hear it with your own ears, warts and all (this is why the idea that seems to surface every few years about "ear equalization" is a crock. Such a sound would be the least natural thing anybody ever heard). A perfect reproduction of an event (if we could achieve it) will sound perfect to EVERYBODY so long as they listen to live music on a regular basis (so that they can adapt to the fact that their hearing has changed).
This also applies to unequal sensitivity of one's ears: one gets used to the fact that a sound directly in front of you is louder in one ear (I don't think there's one "normal" person in the universe whose ears are equal, yet we have no difficulty identifying that a sound is originating directly in front of us).
Equally obvious is the fact that people with no ability to hear certain ranges of frequencies cannot evaluate performance in those frequency ranges.
There's no controversy at all to this issue.
This also applies to unequal sensitivity of one's ears: one gets used to the fact that a sound directly in front of you is louder in one ear (I don't think there's one "normal" person in the universe whose ears are equal, yet we have no difficulty identifying that a sound is originating directly in front of us).
Equally obvious is the fact that people with no ability to hear certain ranges of frequencies cannot evaluate performance in those frequency ranges.
There's no controversy at all to this issue.