In Whose Ears Do You Trust Most?

I agonized for months with speaker placement. I was fortunate that a friend of mine actually knows a designer/manufacture and within ten minutes he moved my speakers about four inches further apart and flattened the toe in about 3/8" and the difference was stunning.

I've been buying gear since the mid sixties but it was obvious I was four inches from being an audiophile. I was advised that the key is to have heard a familiar piece of music through a properly set up system and memorizing some of the staging cues.

Vic

I only trust my own ears. After all, I'm the one that has to listen to the sound my equipment makes, however flawed or corrupted that sound may be. What good is it to have a system that creates a 'picture perfect' sound if you don't like that sound?

Pubul57,
you make a very good point I feel. I've been in this hobby even longer than you and I still feel the same as you describe it. My better half plays the violin, I the piano, we have musician friends and other afficionados. When I try out something new I call the "committee", as Mr. T has called it, for lenghty sessions full of lively discussions. Of course I tend to trust my own ears most, but now and again committee or better half will leave me convinced, that in first exitement about something my ears had lead me astray. In our hobby it is as with all things human, if you get too emotional about something, be it positive or negative, it is good to listen to others, who are not in the same state of arousal as you are and try to let sink in what they have to say. It is wisdom, but it ain't always easy to adhere to.

@Pubul57

I used to have the same approach as yourself but since a year or so I have changed. Now I have learnt to be as direct and merciless as my wife when critiquing my system. If there is one bit I don't like about my system I tell that to my AV consultant straight away. I don't get wowed by name or think I would come to like it over time etc etc.
Luckily my consultant is competent and is always able to deliver the sound I like just by tweaking the system.

Music to me is an affair of heart so if you don't like the sound of your system why bother having one in the first place :-)

Cheers,
-Rayden

A Merlin owner who doesn't trust his ears?Whats the planet Earth coming to?Chocolate grasshoppers? 9 year old Olympic athletes?20M$ space rides?Whatever happened to the good old bad days like.................you fill in the blank...I need to know more about this Heathrow Effect you mention,excuse me,or as Mozart would say"I'll be Bach".....