Let me clarify my initial thread. My theory is that every one unknowingly adapts to the specific sonic experience of telephone listening to improve his/her recognition of what is coming through the receiver and that this is a specific frequency range and set of distortions. The ear/brain is able to maximize this through repeated conditioning. I prepose that if I spent a considerable time listening on the phone with the opposite ear that I normally use, that at some point in time I would find no difference in perceived sound from one ear to the other. Every one has an incentive to able discern as best as possible as to what information is coming through the telephone receiver and are able to adapt to it. As some of you have mentioned, not every one has an incentive to listen to and appreciate music let alone a high-end system. However, given motivation of what ever sort to get people interested in home audio, I believe that even someone who proclaims tin ears can be educated as to what to listen for and by what means to enable them to hear some of the things that us audiophiles hear and find stimulating and satisfying in our music reproduction systems. I don't know any specialty that doesn't take a certain amount of interest/study by the individual in order to have a better understanding and appreciation of that endeavor. I am not educated or experienced in wine tasting so I might enjoy a 4.00 bottle as much as the afficiondo enjoys his 200.00 bottle but thats not to say I could not be educated, it's just that I have no motivation in this direction, and so that's my correlation to our learned hobby. To sum it up, to appreciate high-end audio, you need the motivation number one, but not golden ears, just the desire and education to appreciate the experience from the great equipment to the widely diversified realm of music.
