This site is like finding my perfect Les Paul. Incredible wealth of knowledge. Thanks for being open to midnight mixers like myself to explain why.

Further, too many people I know whose hearing acuity I really respect have reported hearing things like a “BIIIIG” difference between 16-bit and 20-bit audio for me to say, “Nah, that’s just group-think. They’re making it up.”

How do you respect someones hearing acuity? You can't use their hearing ability, you can only use your own. So the required respect couldn't come from experiencing that persons engineering skills, because you'd be using YOUR ears, not theirs. And whether or not their hearing is good in your opinion (thus leading to respect) comes from hearing their work through your own hearing acuity.

It isn't possible to respect someones hearing acuity, because you have no way of experiencing that. I tend to feel its more a case that you respect them as people, which should not have any place in determining these kind of issues.

In other words: You fell for a different kind of emperors clothes syndrome.

I've been trying to come up with convincing demonstrations related to high sample rates and long data words. You can find my efforts here: http://www.pcabx.com/sample_rates/index.htm

I respect their hearing acuity because I've witnessed them working with their ears. I think that is valid. Nonetheless, you raise a good point - we all hear with our own ears and we have to learn to trust them, and calibrate them as best we can.

In general, what you suggest is probably true. Others' claims only reveal to us that somebody else "claimed" to hear something, and "may" have heard it. Beyond that, we don't really know anything.

Best regards,

Dave