Audiophile Claims Average Person Can Detect High-Quality Sound

Steve Guttenberg (no, not that one), spent the better part of two decades selling hi-fidelity equipment before becoming a professional audio hardware reviewer. Having edited his work a few years back, I can vouch for his ability to distinguish between audio sources that might sound the same to the average person.

Maybe the average person isn't listening hard enough.

In a recent blog post, Guttenberg claims that once people know what to listen for, they can easily understand why some speakers sound better than others.

It's not so different than learning about wines or food. Thedetails become more significant as you become engaged in the subject athand.

Once I asked my customers, for example, to listen closely to thebelievability of Eric Clapton vocal, they started to noticedifferences. Over one speaker Eric seemed to emerge from a box, andover another speaker he all but materialized between the stereospeakers. There was a three dimensional quality to the voice, he wasmore human. You could hear the body attached to the voice. Once youknow what to listen for, the differences aren't at all subtle.

The same listening awareness can be applied to the sound ofinstruments, do the drums sound like bees buzzing inside a small tableradio or can you feel the sticks beating skins, do you catch the bassdrum's thump in your chest? Does the rhythm make you want to get up anddance? These aren't small things, and can make a gigantic difference inthe way you emotionally connect with the music. Like I said, mostpeople, when presented with bona-fide, better sounding speakersdefinitely can hear the difference.

I'll be moderating a panel called The High-End Audio Demo in an iPod World at CES next week, which will examine this issue a bit further.

(the audiophiliac; image from technabob.com)