"I Trust My Ears"

"Trust my brains?"  Nah, that would apply to any of the senses.

Do you "believe your eyes" or are they just conduits to your brain that does the believing?

It's a lot smarter to trust your own ears than anyone else's.

"I trust my ears" should really be "I trust my brains".

Neither is adequate.

I trust my ability to pay attention.

I trust my ability to interpret.

I trust my ability to be patient and be rigorous in my methods.

Those are the things at stake.

It’s a lot smarter to trust your own ears than anyone else’s.

Well, not anyone. Some people are better at the required skills than I am. When I trust their ears -- and maybe suspend belief about my "certainties" my ears (and brain), I can stretch a bit and learn something.

The notion that everyone is their best source of expert knowledge is leading us into dangerous waters, let’s not extend it to audio.

The point of this thread is that sound quality is determined not by our ears but by our brains. Our ears merely transduce the sound waves. Our brains make value judgements as to what sounds good, or which one between A and B sounds better. Just like our eyes see pictures, but it is our brains that see beauty.

None of this has to do with measurements and I’m not sure why they’re being brought into the conversation, other than the ears vs measurements trope is a familiar one.

Instead it has everything to do with whether and how much we can / should trust our brains to accurately and reliably perform nonsimultaneous A/B comparisons when it is notoriously inaccurate and suggestible in that respect. Literally tens of thousands of pages have been written on the subject, reaching far beyond audio into gastronomy, oenology, etc., and, perhaps more tragically, police lineups. People of good faith place at the crime scene with absolute certainty a person who was later proven to be 500 miles away at the time.

The train-your-brains argument is of course valid. Some of the folks who fail these tests are highly trained and have decades of experience, however, like those wine critics who couldn’t pick California wines from French once the labels were removed.

How many of us account for the fact that the subtler differences we think we’re hearing may just be our brains telling us there’s something when there’s nothing just because it seems there should be?

@hilde45 

You are over thinking it. Simple point was, should I have my system adjusted by somebody else's ears?

I don't think so. Their ears don't know what sounds right to mine.

As to the brains vs the ears debate, my ears and brains have been interconnected for over 70 years. I trust the combo.

This is a DEEP discussion...