The same way some people have been sight, some have better smell, tastes, spacial awareness etc. Some people DO have better hearing. Your question about being an audiophile however is more of do you need to have that better hearing to be an audiophile, the answer is no.
You can learn to listen better by knowing what you’re listening for. So it takes practice and you can train your brain to hear more detail.
An example, sonar operators in cold war era submarines. It’s all reflected noise, but with training they can tell the difference between submarines with insane accuracy.
I don’t think your ears neccarily have to be good to call yourself an audiophile. I personally think the bare minimum is just caring about how your music sounds. Most people have a bit of audiophilia in them most people care about the fact that their music sounds good so they spend a bit more cash for a decent pair of headphones or something but most often than not it’s pair of beats or skull candies. So an audiophile has like 2 steps above that in terms of caring actually does research whether that be forums or in person testing .then there is 5 steps above that where it becomes less about the music and more gear personally I like to call those folks tweakophiles.
Yeah, sorry, my bad. At least the Fosi Audio is apparently impressive for the price. Like, for 200$, it’s like the “Asgard 3” for speakers… lol. I listed inexpensive stuff because I felt like he spent everything on speakers thinking the rest did not matter – with no money left for the rest. But yes. It does. With 150$ speakers? Don’t bother. With 1500$+ speakers? Chances are with every amp/dac change you will hear the difference.
But I only know about inexpensive stuff, I power my inexpensive speakers with my AVR, and my next speakers will be active. So I have no idea other than the little Fosi Audio. Rotel and Marantz comes to mind but these might be too big for a desk.
A good somalier can tell you the grape variety, the vintage, how the wine was aged and in a lot of instances the vintner itself. You have to have a great ability to taste, but you also have to train your brain for that kind of ability.
I am horrible remembering people’s names, and pretty poor with faces, but I can spot the voice of a actor I know doing a voice over for a commercial and tell you who it is without much trouble.
There is inherent ability and even as a kid I was always drawn to hi-fi.
Would a current marantz AVR and say topping E30 with its PA3 amp be good setups for $500 and below speakers in both desktop and listening room enviorments?
any amps at the same price point with like 80w ? im thinking of doing a pepsi challenge in my HR and living room. The HT i can simulate a desktop and LR for the dedicated listening area. The livingroom is 16x25 domesticated with furniture and carpets that i can rearrange to setup a front stage, its pretty dead i cant hear any echo when i clap.
My ability to hear the implicit differences in how audio is decoded in Dacs is getting better the more time I am spending with Hugo TT2 and Micro Black Label.
Somehow the term “less refined” keeps popping in my head when I think about the black label
Topping and SMSL are owned by the same Chinese conglomerate (along with a bunch of other brands). I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re mostly the same inside.