Concentration

Reading, doing chores, or writing something ... really lessens your enjoyment and can potentially cause you to doubt the quality of your system.  
What do you think?

I disagree. If I listened to my system only when I can give it full, undivided attention I would be listening 20 or 30 minutes a day, as opposed to 5 or 6 or 7 hours. So, far from lessening my enjoyment, ancillary activities greatly multiply it.

Classical compositions appeal at multiple levels -- they have to, because composers at that time were, in large part, composing music for the public. They had to make a visceral connection. That’s why even the non-classical listener knows the tunes to many compositions.

@hilde45 

Classical composers - the vast majority of them, anyway - made music at the pleasure of European monarchies, courts and assorted hangers-on. The public was not concerned.

This built-in perception of elitism endures. While most folks may know the first 20 seconds of Beethoven’s Fifth because it is incontournable, classical is perhaps the only music genre that periodically faces calls to be either removed from the curricula of public universities or to have public subsidy of its study and performance curtailed or ended.

@audphile1 

I was talking about the general disconnect in democratic society between classical music and non-listeners, likely due to the perception of that genre’s elite origins.

Music bans by totalitarian regimes are a whole different ball of wax. The Taliban bans all music, musicians, and instruments. Compare to Stalin’s laissez-faire :)