http://journals.lww.com/thehearingj...ning_gives_edge_in_auditory_processing.3.aspx
In the sensory sciences, we're often focused on the afferent system. In hearing, afferent processing is the systematic progression of neural impulses from cochlea to auditory nerve to midbrain and thalamic structures, and finally to auditory cortex. However, there's an extremely extensive network of reverse connections as well.When a given sound has some importance attached to it, such as the sound of your baby crying, the efferent system, originating in the cortex, strengthens the lower levels' acuity to this sound, all the way to the hair cells in the cochlea. This happens via augmenting stimulus features and increasing the signal-to-noise ratio until the neurons on your auditory system become finely tuned to that particular sound. This cognitive-sensory interaction enables a mother to instantly pick out her baby's cry from among all the other babies fussing at day care.
So maybe it is all preference but not necessarily just concious preference! Also there seems to be a biologically overlaid preference for consonant rather than disconsonant sounds
