In Whose Ears Do You Trust Most?

I trust my body, not just my ears. If the feet are tapping, butt is shaking, and head is bobbing all is well. My ears alone are susceptible to sound effects and all sorts of musically irrelevant stuff that never fool the rest of me.

The music travels from YOUR EARS through a passage called
emotion to a place in your heart.
Trust your own ears to get you to that place

Thinking about this a bit more, I don't tend to doubt what I am hearing (for the most part) and describing it. I think I'm pretty good at that (my weakness is tweaks where for the most part I can't hear any differences). I feel less comfortable with the issue of proclaiming one piece of gear as "better" than another, assuming equipment of similar "quality" - I'm not talking about gross differences between mediocre and excellent gear. But when comparing the good stuff, I can hear differences, but find it hard to say which is better, as it always seems to be tradeoffs in one area of perfomance or another - and in no case does reproduce music sound like live, unamplified music - not very close IMHO. When asked to compare, I feel most comfortable saying two pieces of equipment (Music Reference versus Atma-sphere for example) are both very good, portray music differently and it is a matter of taste. I ask for other opinions of "disinterested" folks that know and love music since I feel I get a less analytical assessment (my own) and a more unbiased, natural reaction to the musical event coming through the gear.

Goldeneraguy- you nailed it, buddy. I listen not very analytically, but more holistically. It has to keep me interested. It has to move me. But it is very helpful to have someone with good analytical listening skills for something like speaker or TT set-up which is a different thing, IMO. And Shadorne- same thing happened to me at an outdoor cocktail party last year. We pulled up and I said to my wife, "Oh neat, they've hired live music." A jazz guitarist. My wife was stunned that I could tell (and of course did not believe me til she got out back and saw him).

Swampwalker ,You could listen analytically,holistically,upside down or inside out,you have ONE GREAT SYSTEM.I wish my ears were listening to it.