I recall the first time I visited MOMA in New York City. I stood in front on a Monet and found it childish, wondering how anyone could call it a masterpiece; little dabs of paint, no meticulous photographic-like quality to it at all.
My son, Sean, smiled and walked me back and away from the picture and I looked at it through his eyes. Then I understood.
Saturday I hauled the prototype for the new Bascom King power amplifier up to Arnie's for voicing. There we tried many different MOSFET and tube combinations for the front end of this beast. I had previously made a number of decisions based on my own listening tests and wanted to hear them through the lens of Arnie's ears.
And while we both hear the same things, just as Sean and I see the same things, they sound and look very different through another's eyes and ears.
I have never figured out how this works or why.
And it never ceases to amaze me that it does.
But listening through someone else's ears changes what one hears.
Try it some time.
