Are we training our ears right?

For the first twenty or thirty years I pursued equipment that sounded better to me. I found I would getting better and better on the things I was listening for and then realize other aspects were sounding worse. I would take a kind of music with me that I happened to be enjoying at the moment and as I modified my system, that kind of music would sound better... others worst. Then by listening attentively I increased all the details I could hear until the venue and mastering technicques stood out.. .but my system had lost the music. 

So I went out looking to figure out what real music sounded like. Whenever I would see an unamplified musical instrument, I'd go listen to it. I listened to acoustical jazz concerts then got seats to the symphony... 7th row center for a decade. I'd listen to what made the symphony sound great... the level of details up front.

Slowly my ears got tuned to what music really sounds like. and then I built my system around that sound. My system is now incredibly addictive and sounds like music. It is hard to listen to the system because the music pulls me away from listening to the speakers or the amplification... and I get lost in the music. 

What a long strange trip it's been. But landed exactly where I wanted to be. 

What I know is that the more I can "hear into the music" (e.g., detail, imaging), the more I enjoy it.

But then, I worked in a professional capacity preparing, proof-reading, and editing technical studies for a living.  And I was very good at it.

At one time I even had my eyes trained/calibrated to read smoke.

https://compliance-assurance.com/veo-course-opacity.php

Too many years in the hobby. I don’t need reference level equipment but crappy sounding stereos really grind my gears. 

@ghdprentice ….as I modified my system, that kind of music would sound better... others worst

After changing components, I’m wondering how many initially focus on the positive changes, but ignore the negative ones. Also wondering if the negative overall sonic result after changing a component might be revealing of other weaknesses in their audio chain rather than just that component.

@erik_squires Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that you can train yourself to hear differences in a fuse.

Not necessarily to hear differences, but to hear sonic improvements for the money invested. 

I am a photographer by training and practice (a BFA and a MFA in photography). When I was very young, I tried to know everything about photography (and thought I did). I understood the chemistry, the optics, how camera bodies worked, and all the relevant  principles of traditional photography. When I got to art school, wise professors successfully got me to understand the difference between the means, and the end. I really don't care about photography equipment anymore - though I own great equipment, and use it everyday. I am not a gear head in that medium at all.

But I guess I need to express that equipment-centric view somewhere, and so audio allows me to indulge the equipment side - and that is enjoyable. But I have been trying to do for myself what my art school teachers did for me way back when - make it more about the musical art than it is about the equipment. On most days lately, I have been successful. And when I want to read about a new SPU cartridge, that's all good, too.

David