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I know there is time I must spend listening to hear what needs to be changed in my set up (critical) but I like most of all just kicking back and enjoying the music. My question is have you even gone too far in critical listening and began missing just enjoying the music ?
Kindablue
Follow Ups:
most of the time i can enjoy the music but when something is obviously or seemingly wrong with the sound, it distracts me until i can rectify it or find a logical explanation for the anomaly. sometimes it is the recording itself.
...regards...tr
I do critical listening in my home studio when i'm recording and mixing my own world wide hits... On a pair of KRK Rokit 6 active monitors. When i'm playing music on the hifi stereo system i'm trying to enjoy music.
"The torture never stops"Greetings Freek.
Gave it up years ago, much cheaper this way.
At some point you have to get off the equipment carousel. The manufacturers don't want you to.
Not that critical listening doesn't have its place, but for me it seemed to have "taken over" a couple of times. I found that I was listening for sonic keys or clues rather than the music itself. Maybe that's when the components have taken over our systems instead of serving them.
Anyway, once I realized that I was able to focus back on the experience of the music. And yes, the pleasure returned!
"The piano ain't got no wrong notes." Thelonious Monk
> I know there is time I must spend listening to hear what needs to be changed in my set up (critical)
> but I like most of all just kicking back and enjoying the music.
If you can kick back and enjoy the music, there is probably little need for critical listening. My system has reached a level of excellence that I no longer feel a need to listen critically. I just sit back and enjoy the music.
When I visit friends for a listening session, we all listen critically. However, my system has reached a level of performance that impresses me as much or more than any of my friends' systems. Not surprisingly, most of my friends feel the same way about their own systems compared to mine and others.
There was a time not too long ago when I felt most of my friends had better sounding systems than mine. That was when I began listening critically to my own system in order to facilitate upgrading. I switched from active speakers to higher quality passive speakers with a separate power amplifier and that made the biggest improvement. Next, I concentrated on my digital front-end until I could again simply enjoy the music be it from digital media or from vinyl media. Now, I am totally happy with the sound of my system and I primarily concentrate on listening to music instead of listening to components. Music is a lot more interesting that way.
Best regards,
John Elison
Rarely, I'm with BS, usually, the music will just take over. Occasionally, it is fun to evaluate different changes on a critical basis.
Mike
Enjoy and let the music surround and embrace you!
Sim
I have to admit I can get into the critical listening mode sometimes.
Not lately, as I have bought nothing new.. LOL
But when I do buy something, I am set to try to hear anything I can for at least several days.
If it is a clear change.. I usually then relax, no problem. The bad times are when it is really tiny change. Or none. Then I an at it for as long as it takes to decide to return the crap, or keep it.
The two worst ever were 1)a new cable, which just within a month I returned. 2) a new DAC, which was no better than my old one. Also returned.
Plenty of other stuff I could tell right off: THIS IS GOOD!
Nothing is simple.
Critical listening or tuning our gear is something most of us do from time to time in order to maximize our listening pleasure.
Sadly there are those who can only play one cut then jump to another and another in order to chase whatever it is they want to show off or hear.
It seems to me you'll know you got it right when your unable to listen critically for any length of time but get swept up in the actual music. My gear is also set up to view movies or music DVD's. Many times my family will react to music in a movie and comment. It's about enjoying life loving music.
Edits: 05/26/17
I only listen critically when evaluating one component vs. another. I also find that my ability to do this effectively is time limited. Perhaps 30 minutes is the max. By contrast I can listen to music for hours and hours and never get tired of it. An interesting side note that I have discovered about my own listening habits is that if I am going to listen to music as a primary activity I like vinyl best unless there is an interesting program on the radio (getting rarer), but if music is an adjunct to other activities such as reading, cooking, corresponding (like now), CDs work far better as they require far less of my attention.
Thanks for replies, I notice that when I don't get too involved in the "critical listening" I often hear what I was trying to find out about like the break in of tubes or the unit itself I will be listening and say something sounds different nice then later I will realize the new phono pre must have broken in some. I would imagine cables would be the hardest at a certain point. My cables are solid but nothing along the lines of what I have seen posted.
Kindablue
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