It does not entirely surprise me.
I worked with my brother years ago, building hi-fi speakers. We showed at CES two years. He could tell the difference, and I learned from him to tell the difference. But many cannot.
Personal hearing frequency response is just one factor. Cultivating an ear for sound reproduction authenticity is another factor.
I am now a semi-professional chorister. I had to cultivate an ear for harmony, timbre, et cetera. At first, I could not tell anything (except, I like it, or, I don’t like it.)
In contrast, my first teacher, who trained with one of the most famous choral conductors in the world in the past forty years, cannot tell the difference between true hi-fi and so-so-fi.
Her organic hearing is actually better than mine: no shooting, no airplanes.
She never cultivated an ear for hi-fi. But she grew up listening to Classical Music, and got a degree in Music. She can pick out one voice from a full choir in the moment, and correct the singer’s pitch, volume, timbre, pronunciation, et cetera - it is quite remarkable. (That is how I learned to sing harmony: She gave me instant feedback.)
But she cannot easily tell the audiophilic difference in sound reproduction between different sources. It used to drive me nuts. I would stage demonstrations to show her, and she would just shrug with a shamed face, and say they did not sound much different to her.
She was listening to the MUSIC, not to the SOUND.
“She was listening to the MUSIC, not to the SOUND.”
When I am deer hunting I don’t really see the forest or hear the birds unless I stop focusing on trying to see that deer.
There's also a lot of different things going on.
I can surely tell the difference between digital and analog versions of, say, Electric Ladyland or Dark Side of the Moon.
But it's more than that. Another poster mentioned the album art itself.
Then there's just the ritual of taking the record out of the album cover, gently placing it on the turntable, running the cleaner over it, placing the needle in the groove....
Then BAM! I'm transported back to 1970 - it's magical.
A Freeper posted last year about him and his wife listening to Dylan's Blood on the Tracks album on a rainy afternoon with a bottle of wine - again, magical.
Can't get that with a CD or MP3.