It is a learned habit more than an ability, but it is also some learned ability born from an habit, linked to a specific acoustical environment, speficic gear, and specific musical sources which the listener, one step at a time learn how to transfer or translate into other acoustical environments, other gears, and other musical sources...
At the end the listener is able to spot and name details the profane will perceive akin to superhuman hearing ....
It is not at all supernatural, only an habit growing and transforming itself at different speed in us in relation to specific acoustical experiences, specific gear experiences and specific musical experiences...
Listening is an habit slowly transformed in a journey, one step in front of the other but on many roads....If not it will stay the same habit forever....
«I made love so many times i can now make it with my hands behind my back; or is it cycling?»-Groucho Marx