From the interview:
"But the results of most audiophile subjective testing is variable and uncertain. So different listeners come to different conclusions about what they hear. As a result, there is very little agreement about the quality of the performance of audio equipment.
"Why is this so? We all hear in a similar way, so what is going on with subjective listening tests that is so confusing?"
***
Here Sanders makes a fundamental mistake when he says, 'we all hear in a similar way". This is clearly not correct. My ears for example are very sensitive to reproduction of microdynamics, which to me very much decide about the liveliness of music, while another person will not be able to live without grand reproduction of scale. For me personally, microdynamics is more important than scale, and I chose my components accordingly, with the compromises that this entails and which I am well aware of (only at a very high price can you have both great microdynamics and scale). Another person will choose differently. This also extends to listening preferences for live music. While I prefer to sit in the front of a concert hall, another person will prefer a perspective from further back. The preferences regarding audio will be made accordingly.
So no, contrary to Sanders' claims, we emphatically do not all hear in a similar way: while the initial physical perception of sound waves by our ears and brains may be similar, the prioritizing of subjective listening preferences by our minds, also informed by our musical preferences, is not. Hence our different opinions about high-end gear (the fact that system and room set-up also play a role in evaluations and differing opinions that result from these is another matter).
