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Listener fatigue: what does it really mean?

Okay, so I used to think that listener fatigue meant that your ears just kind of got tired from listening to speakers that were overly bright. I don't have a good understanding of the make up of an ear, but I believe there are muscles in an ear that, I guess, expand and contract while we listen to music and I figured that's what it meant to have listener fatigue. Now, I'm thinking that listener fatigue is maybe more than your ears just getting tired but actually, your whole body getting tired and feeling drained. I experienced this time and time again listening to my paradigm studio's. They are somewhat bright and provide quite a bit of detail in my oppinion, so I'm wondering if, since there was such a great amount of detail coming through, that it was physically draining because I'm sitting there analyzing everything that's coming through the speakers. I would wake up and first thing in the morning, grab a cup of coffee and start listening to music (my daily routine) and 20-30 minutes later start nodding off and I couldn't figure out what was going on. I've been sitting here this morning listening to my new vandersteen's for two hours and can't get enough. I feel like I could listen all day and that I'm almost energized from listening vs. drained.

Soooo, what are your oppinions about what listener fatigue is and why it's caused?
b_limo

Showing 6 responses by petepappp

petepappp
37 posts
 
I find Ralph's response extremely interesting as I detect a hint of the significance of the subjective experience as a significant part of the musical equation. I don't think engineers like thinking like this, fortuneately for us subjective listeners, although I think he took his oscilloscope and sound meter with him into the netherlands. This poses an interesting question. If Ralph was able to build an amplification system that "trips all the audiophile triggers", dropping us to our knees in tears through manipulating the presentation of the source signals, would the system be considered high fidelity and would he be raped by the audio reviewing and audio engineering community for manufacturing inaccurate equipment? The Shehanian Diopsan/ Stereophile debacle comes to mind.
petepappp
37 posts
 
O.K., we have a top notch amp manufacturer giving his expert opionion on how the amplification process can contribute to listener fatigue, is that the whole story? The presence or absence of odd ordered harmonics perceived by the brain as noise explains it all. Do lack of detail or dynamics contribute? Can too much detail cause fatigue? How much does the preconceived notion in our head of good sound contribute? Can complying too much or varying too much from this image cause fatigue? Is complete aversion, like fingernails on a chalkboard, instant fatigue or something else?
petepappp
37 posts
 
Definitely agree with Atmasphere detail/brightness comments. Good or improved detail, upgrading a system component for example, to me is when you are able to hear things that were more hinted at but not defined before and relaxed presentation would also apply unless the recording calls for some thing different. Brightness definitely adds to fatigue. I guess what I am calling dynamics would be the ability for the system to reproduce accurately subtle as well as very energetic or loud musical passages. Accurately being the key phrase. This ability should make the music more interesting and less fatiguing IMO. I realize increased SPLs caused can cause amp clipping, speaker inablilty to reproduce, etc. and there must be a "noise" threshold for fatigue. Dynamic range might also be part of this discussion and seems strange to me. I think that a good analogy would be overly compressed mp3 files compared to HD FLAC files (well recorded and mixed ones). I say strange because 15ips reel to reel recordings do not have the dynamic range of say DSD, but there is something to them beyond their increased level of detail that makes them special. Maybe dynamics?
petepappp
37 posts
 
Does it follow from the previous responses that a large amount of amplifier "headroom" should reduce listener fatigue, assuming the amp is capable of low distortion sound reproduction? I keep running into the relationship between fatigue and I'll call it peaked interest. I think there might be a relationship but more complicated than a perfectly converse one. More simply does boredom equal fatigue?
petepappp
37 posts
 
No dilemma Csontos, interested in other responses, thanks for yours. Agree with your upgrade comment, including source material. I'm a believer in plan your work and work your plan. I find that if you don't know what you want, you have very little chance of getting "it". Even opinions that I might not agree with often teach me something.Interesting thread.
petepappp
37 posts
 
If one is exposed to sounds greater than 90 dB for an average of eight hours per day without hearing protection, hearing loss will most likely result. As the volume increases, the safe time of exposure decreases. Quote from Stoneybrook School of Medicine website. That's pretty loud and alot of listening. The site also said occupational noise has been replaced by headphone use as the number one cause of environmental hearing loss which is impacting mostly the younger generation, so purchase a good set of speakers, leave the headphones on the shelf, and enjoy the music.
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