Got Ears?

1) Get quiet, get centered, and listen in the dark with your eyes closed.
2) Consider it your job to identify every single instrument and effect on a track. Are there 1 or 2 or 3 guitars? Can you tell a single-coil from a humbucker? (or better yet, a Stratocaster from a Telecaster? How many horns? What keyboard sounds are present? Is that a Rhodes or a Hammond? Can you differentiate the kick drum from the bass notes?
3) After you're able to pick apart all the individual instruments, you realize that your next job is to appreciate how all these parts are put together. It's quite the zen trick to register the components and the whole (like figure and ground) at once. But once you reach this point, you're a Listener.
4) Take ear breaks. After 10 or 15 minutes of music, you often need 2 or 5 minutes of silence.
5) Have fun.

Lol vsollozzo, that made me laugh, what you said about her either being crazy or that she loves me. Your whole post was good! I can relate; I love the way some Ferrari's scream, and I love the way some sportbikes and harleys sound. Never thought of it that way, but I guess I like sounds too :-)

Cymbob, thanks for all the good input. I've recently been picking up on backup vocals. It's kind of funny, or sad, that I wasn't really able to hear that too much before. I've found that I do hear more and get more involved when I close my eyes when listening. I think part of what I enjoy so much about listening to music is how relaxing it can be. I've found that activities that can consume 100% of your concentration can be zen like.

Anyhow, thanks for the valuable input guys!

You've _got_ to take your eyes out of the equation. Your brain is wired to give visual stimuli precedence over aural stimuli. That's why I play bass with my eyes closed; that's why I'll close my eyes to listen when I'm at a live concert. That's why I set my DAC and Squeezebox to go black during playback. Turning off the lights in the room helps immeasurably, if you can get past other people thinking that it's weird.

Cymbop, nice rig.
I had to get past people thinking "it's" weird a long time ago my friend!

I truly believe that most anyone can develope golden ears.
But I also have to add that some folks may have better ears than others ,hence the ability of some folks to be able to carry a tune and others who can not-the tone deaf.

Iam a musician, so for the last 40 odd years I've trained my ears to keep me playing in tune,you know when things are off key.Some folks don't seem to be able to tell the difference.

Part of this was learned from experience,some taught from mentors and some self taught thru many hours trial and error learning to play by ear.

I think this early musical experience made it easier for me to become a more discerning audiophile, and I don't mind being called an audiophile,because to me that's the ultimate music lover.To me it's someone who wants to retrieve as much music from his system as he can, the emphasis being music.
If I wanted to collect stuff there are much cheaper things to collect than audio gear.
But I was also lucky enough to have a few audio mentors who helped me hone my music listening skills.
First of all, to get ears you have to use them.
That means listening to the music and not just having it play in the background while you text or read.You know the types who like to have a few brewskies and spin some tunes to chill out types.
Nothing wrong with that,but you'll never turn a poor system into a good one if that's how you view this hobby.
Then again enough brew and anything will sound passable.
Ever notice how the volume goes up as the quanity of alcohol is increased?

In the old days when I started,distractions were frowned upon.
You turned the system on, grabbed a few lps and listened to them,mostly in the dark and in solitude.
You listened for every little detail, and you developed an auditory memory of what was on those discs, you knew them inside out, which came in handy when you contemplated an upgrade.
If the old reference (could be any type of music and style)was found to have more detail, more hidden nuggets of information,then the new upgrade was deemed worthy of a cash outlay.
If it was the same or no difference, then no blood was spilt.

I do wonder if some of the folks who make it a habit to post that everything sounds the same or makes no difference to their ears are perhaps 1-less critical listeners, who only listen to the tunes for pleasure-2-have no musical apptitude or the gift of being able to sing in tune and stay in pitch-3-lack the concentration to focus on just one thing and absorb it entirely without distractions(ADHD could be an issue with some anti audiophile,non tweakers).
Or perhaps are all of the above and who don't care about anything other than if the music makes their toes tap.

If that's all that it takes, then you don't need to search out any gear better than a table top radio to satisfy you.
And you would be correct to state that the rest of us are all nuts.