Brenden, let me share with you an 'ears adjusting' example, for no other reason than for conversations sake.
Have you ever worn noise cancelling headphones, on a train or plane? I do. I swear by them, in those situations.
I have a 1.5hr train ride to and from work each day. On my journey I whack my noisecancelling headphones on, the world around me fades away, and i can listen to music or digital radio at relatively low levels (ie: i dont have to turn the volume up to overcome the drone of the train, and due to the low level I arrive at the end of the journey with zero listener fatigue).
A couple of times now, I have pulled off my noise cancelling headphones while the train is in full swing, and my ears are BOMBARDED with the noise of the train !!!!! What is striking, is how loud the noise seems when I rip the phones off.
But,,,,, then wait a few minutes, and the train noise subsides. Leave them off, and the noise fades right away. By the end of the journey, I dont even notice anything more than a gentle titter tatter of the tracks resonating.
My ears do adjust. From overwhelming fark me brain snapping noise, in relative shock after the blissful silence from the noisecancelling headphones, to zoning out the noise and not even noticing it.
Our brains do work this way.
That said. I totally agree on trusting our ears, and being in touch with our emotional reactions to music. But I am also open to the idea that our ears and brain does adjust to what is being presented (over time). And that this trait is a good thing, its a natural phenomena that works for us.