Wasted Years.

Thanks for this magnificent quote to meditate :

Reminds me of the famous quote in the field of biology by Albert Szent-Györgyi:

“In my quest for the secret of life I started my research in histology. Unsatisfied by the information that cellular morphology could give me about life, I turned to physiology. Finding physiology too complex, I took up pharmacology. Still finding the situation too complicated, I turned to bacteriology. But bacteria were even too complex, so I descended to the molecular level, studying chemistry and physical chemistry. After twenty years' work, I was led to conclude that to understand life we have to descend to the electronic level and to the world of wave mechanics. But electrons are just electrons and have no life at all. Evidently on the way I lost life; it had run out between my fingers.”

Are you hearing  the instruments or the music?
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/are-you-hearing-the-instruments-or-the-music

Definitely could not have said it better myself. 
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJ8hRHXTEpx/?igsh=ODU1YzdxOGt4bWJ2

Go listen to live music.  I took in a concert tonight of a Schubert String Quintet.  Amazing piece of music.  All local professional players.

What's even more fun is to get together a decent recording rig and go capture it live and then compare what you hear at home with what you heard live.

Interesting debate. I can easily drift into a 'critical' listening mode with too much focus on the sound. Especially when I focus on perceived problems .... the treble has some distortion ... the bass could be better ... and so on. A method that helps me get into the music is to listen for what is good about the sound, rather than what is bad.