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Second opinions — how have others (including non-audiophiles) helped you?

Have been building a system since December 2020, just about at a place where I can rest for a while. Very enjoyable process of researching, trying, listening. Last phase, room treatments, are just about done.

Along the way, it's been very useful to bring in other family members and some close friends to listen and tell me what they hear. Most are non-audiophiles. But what jumped out to them helped me recalibrate what I was attending to and listen anew.

I was really trying to listen critically — sometimes with checklists of qualities to pay attention to. But myopia is a hard problem to see around, if you will. In some very important moment (including speaker tryouts), they pointed to obvious problems which I was missing.

Here's one recent example. I had been trying to tame some bass peaks and loaded the front of the room up with panels. I got those peaks under control — tight bass, well placed imaging, natural sounding instruments. Then, I had my wife sit down, and in a couple of seconds she noticed that things sounded "constrained" and "missing air." I pulled a couple bass traps out of there and things opened up — "Ah, that's better," she said. As I sat to listen, she was right. Better reverb, more space, lightness.

That's just one example. My question to anyone wanting to share is how other people (including non-audiophiles) helped you improve your system.
hilde45

Showing 1 response by stevewharton

stevewharton
111 posts
 
I've had some success with friends and family members providing constructive feedback

I've also has those that thought the plan was to sing along with the music or have a conversation during an instrumental solo 

As MC has mentioned many times critical listening is a learned process

What I found that helps is to play material that is preferred and enjoyed by the listener, which provides them the advantage of reference

I great example my youngest Son is 27 he enjoys blues and funk

My reference material for him is usually SRV, Robert Cray and the RHCP

I upgraded my DAC and gave him a demo

After the first song I said what do you think

And he was quit and slowly forming his response and he said I'm sorry Dad I'm not sure how to frame it but I'm having an emotional experience with this music

I've listend to this song a 1000 times since I was 12 years old and I've never experienced it like this

As he spoke his eyes were moistening and I was delighted that he could feel something in his soul from the music

I thought later about the words he used, emotional experience

That's what happens when we're in the pressence of true art, it taps our emotions and makes us feel something

I felt that my system brought the listener closer to the art

And for that both the consumer and the artist have benefitted 
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