Yet everytime I asked someone what component (or system) they really liked I got a new answer. Components that just didn't do it for me for one reason or another were somebody elses favorite. Then somebody else would have a completely opposite reaction to the same system.

This happened more often than I would have ever expected. Any ideas as to why we all have such different preferences when it comes to audio reproduction? Is this something we have "learned" through extended listening to reproduced music or is there just a lot of variation in everyones hearing?