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Maybe critical listening skills are bad?

In another thread about how to A/B compare speakers for a home I was thinking to myself, maybe the skills a reviewer may use to convey pros and cons of a speaker to readers is a bad skill to use when we evaluate hardware and gear?

I'm not against science, or nuance at all.  I was just thinking to myself, do I really want to spend hours A/B testing and scoring a speaker system I want to live with?

I do not actually.  I think listening for 2 days to a pair of speakers, and doing the same to another pair I need to focus first on what made me happy.  Could I listen to them for hours?  Was I drawn to spend more time with music or was I drawn to writing  minutiae down?

And how much does precise imaging really do for my enjoyment by the way?  I prefer to have a system that seems endless.  As if I'm focusing my eyes across a valley than to have palpable lung sounds in my living room.

Anyway, just a thought that maybe we as consumers need to use a different skill set when buying than reviewers do when selling.

erik_squires
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,605 posts
 

The better informed a decision is the better the decision.

erik_squires OP
16,554 posts
 

The interesting finding in such research is that not all physical qualities to which experts may be attuned correlate with liking. In the end, product developers need only attend on those physical qualities that are associated with what the target audience likes. 

 

Oh, absolutely.  What audiophiles often don't understand is that companies like Bose are _very_ much driven by cognitive science.  The depth of research they do into creating products which are liked, and therefore have financial value in the marketplace is breathtaking.  Absolute perfection of an audio signal is irrelevant.  Engineering metrics only matter so long as they are correlated to being "liked."  Their success in the marketplace speaks for itself.

mashif
296 posts
 

I start with "do I like it better than something else"? 

If I do, I can analyze why but I won't even bother analyzing if I don't feel drawn in by the sound. Over time I've learned what nuances I like, so if I read reviews I look for those specific things to determine if a product interests me. 

mswale
187 posts
 

If you don't want to do any critical listening, then just treat it like normal. What I mean is just listen to it. Do you like it "better" maybe, or swap back once and see if it's now "worse". 

My thought is if it makes you happy, holds your attention, you are going to use it. Then it's "better". This entire process is suppose to bring joy. If it does not, then it's not the right piece.

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