Audio Diversity - What is it?

Yea, I do that bark stuff. It does make me howl. The strip joints, well thats to protect my monetary position..Tom

Most people, and that includes a large number of the people who post here, don't have the experience with enough equipment to be able to offer a valid opinion on the differences between, and the quality of, "high end" components.
At least some of them admit that "I haven't heard those other models, but..." Others don't even do that; they just want to offer an opinion.....for what that's worth.
A person of experience can see what some of these people are raving about and just shake their head in disbelief. Some of us have heard the equipment that others rave about and know that it's just not that good. The sound of that equipment might be a revelation to the inexperienced, but they haven't heard the better stuff yet. Why do you think there is so much stuff being sold on Audiogon? People want to try something different, they're looking for Audio Nirvana and failing to find it, choosing the wrong equipment based on other (inexperienced) peoples' opinions or they have realized after awhile that the piece wasn't as good as they thought it was.
If two people can't agree on what they're hearing, it could be a hearing deficiency that they're unaware-of, or one or both don't know what to listen-for. It takes experience and a good teacher to point those things out. That's also why a good dealer (or a good demonstration) is important; the good dealer has experience listening to different equipment and can point out the differences in equipment and performance. Once you've heard the things you should be listening-for, you don't forget them, and eliminating the lesser components is made easier.
Highest price doesn't automatically mean highest performance either; there is a lot of high-priced crap out there. As twl has mentioned, ego and status come into play and the owners would be loathe to admit that anything sounds better, at any price, and especially if it's cheaper; it would be too embarassing to admit one spent all that money and obtained a product that can get its ass kicked for $20,000 less!
Then there are people who have very good equipment and are STILL not happy. They dump it to get the latest greatest thing that they read about here. Then a couple of weeks later, they are asking about where they can send it to get that "great" modification done by some twit who is crowing that he can make it better than the manufacturer can. Then they have the mod done, screwing-up any warranty in the process, and often find that the performance wasn't improved at all....like they're going to admit that? Not!
Then there's the question that begs asking: if the latest greatest was so good in the first place why the heck are you looking to modify it?
To finish things-up here, I'd just like to say that although I love Audio and music playback, and I like what a very good audio system can do, I have no illusions. It doesn't sound like the real thing and anyone who raves on and says that his system sounds like the real thing is either seriously deluded, lying, or hasn't heard any live music lately - if ever!! It really hits you when you are walking through the halls of a CES listening to all of this high-priced gear, then from around the corner or down the hall it hits you - someone is playing live acoustic music on real instruments. It's unmistakeable..and THAT's what you should be trying to hear in your audio system.

It really comes down to an educated ear.
You may have noticed in your many years of listening that when you were learning how to listen, and what to listen for. When you heard a really great system you may have said to yourself, YA it's better but not that much better than mine and not worth paying all that extra money for.

Then when the day came that you did get a better system and you lived with it, and got accustomed to hearing all the new details you now say to yourself, how did I ever think what I had was so good. It's your point of referance.

The point I am making or adding here is, when you first here something better you really don't hear it that well.
But when you take it away, then you really notice it.
It is the absence of certain qualities one has learned to listen for, that really stand out.

So when 2 people listen to the same thing and disagree on the sound I believe this educated ear plays a role. IMHO

I also agree that the pride thing and prejudice, play a big part in the semantics here at Agon

I dont believe one person knows "How to listen" more than somebody else. Everybody listens. Its weather or not you can break down what you heard into a verbal form that can be relayed and understood by others.

I dont believe that I can "Listen better" than one of my buddys who is not into audio. I dont believe that the more seasoned people here can "listen better" than me. If anything the ability you gain is the terminology and wording to present the differences you feel into a sentence.

Its like when a skilled guitar player listens to somebody else play, he can recognize the chords and strings, the non-guitar playing guy cannot. It does not mean that they hear differently, it does not mean the guitar player hears better, and it certainly does not mean that the guitar players hearing gives him better judgement as to weather or not it sounds good.

i mean no offence, but if somebody told me they can listen to music better than me, i would reccommend that they talk to a therapist.

my other half is by no means an audiophile. She can tell that my new speakers sound different than my old speakers, she fully believes they sound better than my old speakers. She lacks the vocabulary list to reffer to alot of the changes.
She says they dont sound as big. "soundstage"
she says they seem to connect better in the center. "imaging"
She says they sound more realistic. Etc Etc.

Shelby, with no real understanding of hardware, software, accoustics, or the principle of sound can tell all the changes i can, she just uses different terminology.

So, i must respectfully disagree that people can ever "Hear better" through experience. They might know what specifically what to pay attention to, so they can put a review into it, or inform somebody else about it, that does not mean they can hear what others cannot though...

as for something sounding better after you got it... that probably has something to do with break in period...

just my opinion, diddnt intend to offend anyone...

Slappy
You're taking that one terminology or point out of context from the rest of the message. I didn't say the experienced ears are any better, I said that they will recognize the good points more quickly because they know what to listen-for; they know where the inferior systems or components fail to deliver.
There is a lot of noises occurring in a musical passage, and the secret is in the playback of certain details; you just have to know what details to listen-for (in addition to the over-all sound). Most people have to be trained to listen properly.