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

@mahgister 

On my K340 it is celestial syrup of the most ethereal kind...Like a set of  colors distillation at the limit of the visible spectrum flowing and flying ...

 

 

 

I know

  it seems a ridiculous set of metaphors, especially out of his context, but it was what i felt listening to  it when my optimization process was completed. 

Remember that i never enjoyed the high frequencies on any of my system as i enjoyed bass and deep bass. It was the first time in all my audio journey. 

And these metaphors conveyed my subjective feelings of this moment. Now i am a highs frequencies head in a way... I like violin much more...

The point is an audiophile system must gave high frequencies enjoyable to the most level possible as well as deep bass..

 

 

I am just beginning to read Oliver Sack's book Musicophilia - Tales of Music and the Brain.  I bet it would interest many participants in this thread.  If you have read it, I would be interested in your thoughts....

I had it for years and did not read him yet...

 Thanks to remind me i must die soon and then must read it sooner...

 

I am just beginning to read Oliver Sack's book Musicophilia - Tales of Music and the Brain.  I bet it would interest many participants in this thread.  If you have read it, I would be interested in your thoughts....

@mahgister 

Oh, my aging brain!  ;o/

I didn't intend to post such an incomplete (and possible cryptic) message. 

What I mean to to ask was whether you view "sweetness of tone" as inherent to the violin and regard any stridency as an artifact of poor audio performance or whether you have deliberately configured your headphone system to present a "sweeter" tonality simply because it's what you prefer, esthetically.