06-09-08: Gogirl asked:
"...My question is does a music lover also need a trained ear to hear differences or when it comes to high end is it obvious? "
If you really don't sit down and listen to your dad's system a lot, then it's not surprising that you hear little difference. To some extent your ears do get trained, but it'll often require an "epiphany" of some sort.
One such epiphany for me was with high quality CD players. When CD was young I was using a very inexpensive CD player and wondering if I should spend big bucks on a top line CDP. I listened in a few shops and didn't hear anything. Finally, a smart retailer said, "Take it home Saturday evening and listen to it over Sunday in your own system." Even after an hour of ABing, I wasn't hearing anything and finally settled down to listen for enjoyment. All of the sudden I heard a clarity and openness that I hadn't noticed before. When I went back to my cheap player the glare and opaqueness was obvious. Later when I got in the car the glare of that player was obvious and almost unlistenable, even though it'd sounded fine to me earlier in the same day. I called the dealer on Monday morning and said I was keeping the $3000 CDP/DAC rig (this was 1993).
Anyway, the training part is that I now easily hear that coloration and glaze/glare. Cables display similar character. Some can't really hear it, but they get "listener fatigue" with one system and not another, it's often related to these kinds of causes.
"Making" yourself hear a difference NEVER works. You need to relax with your own system. Live with a system for a few weeks before ever considering a "tweak". Once you're used to the system and very familiar, then switch one component (like borrow some cables from your dad). Listen for a few hours and then switch back to the original component. Did you hear a difference? Maybe, maybe not, but if you did and it wss for the better, then switching back to the original will be very disturbing.
For those of us that listen a lot, getting rid of the stress/glare/glaze in the sound is very important, inabling much longer, more enjoyable listening sessions.
Dave
"...My question is does a music lover also need a trained ear to hear differences or when it comes to high end is it obvious? "
If you really don't sit down and listen to your dad's system a lot, then it's not surprising that you hear little difference. To some extent your ears do get trained, but it'll often require an "epiphany" of some sort.
One such epiphany for me was with high quality CD players. When CD was young I was using a very inexpensive CD player and wondering if I should spend big bucks on a top line CDP. I listened in a few shops and didn't hear anything. Finally, a smart retailer said, "Take it home Saturday evening and listen to it over Sunday in your own system." Even after an hour of ABing, I wasn't hearing anything and finally settled down to listen for enjoyment. All of the sudden I heard a clarity and openness that I hadn't noticed before. When I went back to my cheap player the glare and opaqueness was obvious. Later when I got in the car the glare of that player was obvious and almost unlistenable, even though it'd sounded fine to me earlier in the same day. I called the dealer on Monday morning and said I was keeping the $3000 CDP/DAC rig (this was 1993).
Anyway, the training part is that I now easily hear that coloration and glaze/glare. Cables display similar character. Some can't really hear it, but they get "listener fatigue" with one system and not another, it's often related to these kinds of causes.
"Making" yourself hear a difference NEVER works. You need to relax with your own system. Live with a system for a few weeks before ever considering a "tweak". Once you're used to the system and very familiar, then switch one component (like borrow some cables from your dad). Listen for a few hours and then switch back to the original component. Did you hear a difference? Maybe, maybe not, but if you did and it wss for the better, then switching back to the original will be very disturbing.
For those of us that listen a lot, getting rid of the stress/glare/glaze in the sound is very important, inabling much longer, more enjoyable listening sessions.
Dave
