fascinating question...'had to comment.
many years ago I had owned what should have been a good mid-range system, Krell (KSA) and other pwr amps, Apogee Duetta Signatures, various preamps including some solid state, some tube, various CD/digital front ends... old PS audio ultralink etc.etc.
while the system sounded quite good overall, out of 1000 or so CDs, probably 100 sounded good, 900 sounded like crap and I had a hard time listening more than a couple hours without fatigue. I don't want to say my ears hurt as that would be a vast exaggeration, but the overall harshness on most recordings could loosely be described as causing physically annoying.
Years later, and for the last few, I'm listening to an entirely different system, probably only slightly more expensive, but 10s of thousands of dollars more enjoyable.
Strangely, as my hearing has "evolved" :) I'm now more annoyed by harsh sounding systems.
At this point I never (and I mean never, even after marathon hours of listening) get that that "pain-in-the-ears" of the past. There are times when I feel like listening to music more or less of course.
Strangely enough, many older CDs that were very un-enjoyable are now quite good. (same old CDs now ripped to WAV or FLAC and stored on NAS)
some things never change, there remain good, bad and pitiful recordings just like always.
The only thing really having changed is me finally learning what sound I wanted and not taking no for an answer in thinking I could not get it, that along with 10+ years more of experimenting with components, room treatments, cables, etc.etc.. etc.
many years ago I had owned what should have been a good mid-range system, Krell (KSA) and other pwr amps, Apogee Duetta Signatures, various preamps including some solid state, some tube, various CD/digital front ends... old PS audio ultralink etc.etc.
while the system sounded quite good overall, out of 1000 or so CDs, probably 100 sounded good, 900 sounded like crap and I had a hard time listening more than a couple hours without fatigue. I don't want to say my ears hurt as that would be a vast exaggeration, but the overall harshness on most recordings could loosely be described as causing physically annoying.
Years later, and for the last few, I'm listening to an entirely different system, probably only slightly more expensive, but 10s of thousands of dollars more enjoyable.
Strangely, as my hearing has "evolved" :) I'm now more annoyed by harsh sounding systems.
At this point I never (and I mean never, even after marathon hours of listening) get that that "pain-in-the-ears" of the past. There are times when I feel like listening to music more or less of course.
Strangely enough, many older CDs that were very un-enjoyable are now quite good. (same old CDs now ripped to WAV or FLAC and stored on NAS)
some things never change, there remain good, bad and pitiful recordings just like always.
The only thing really having changed is me finally learning what sound I wanted and not taking no for an answer in thinking I could not get it, that along with 10+ years more of experimenting with components, room treatments, cables, etc.etc.. etc.