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?
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The thread was called Sound Exposure and Potential Hearing Loss. For some reason I am unable to provide a link, sorry.
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 The site also said occupational noise has been replaced by headphone use as the number one cause of environmental hearing loss which is impacting mostly the younger generation, so purchase a good set of speakers, leave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.
Learsfool, I remember seeing that one too. I recently downloaded a db app for my iphone and find myself listening in the 75-85 db range when I'm really rockin out but normally listen in the 65-75 range. Something I found scary, and stupid, is the accepted db work levels set by osha - 90 db for eight hours a day? 100 db for 2 hours a day? Are you kidding me?

Anyways, back on topic, alot has changed recently in my system, as usual, but I haven't experienced the physical fatigue that I had felt in the past which made me start this thread in the first place.

I think the factors that helped were switching to speakers that are way more laid back in there presentation and reducing distortion that I didn't even know was there through the use of acoustic panels.

I'm really loving my system now and it is not fatiguing in any way anymore :-)