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Critical listening and altered states

Ok, this is not a question about relaxing, but about listening to evaluate how the system (or a piece of gear is sounding).

What, in your experience, are the pluses and minuses of altering your state of mind for listening? This can include anything you've used to affect your everyday state of mind, from coffee, beer, scotch, tobacco, to much stronger — and psychoactive, dissociative — additives.

What do you gain by altering your consciousness in terms of what you notice, attend to, linger on, etc?
What causes more details to emerge?
What allows you to stick with a thread or, alternately, make new connections?

Or perhaps you like to keep all those things *out* of your listening; if that's you, please say a bit about why.

hilde45

Showing 1 response by dsper

dsper
663 posts
 
I feel pretty strongly that I ought to be sober when evaluating gear. Costs too much not to be.

My reference point is that typically an album I first listened to with a high or buzz on and then listened to a week later, more often than not, sounded like junk.

YMMV


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