I use the term "intentional listening" when I make the effort to sit down at the end of the day and revisit specific albums in my collection or listen to new acquisitions / potential buys. My listening sessions might last 2-3 hours before I call it a night. My job during the day requires me to be analytical, and at the end of the day, I just want to relax and enjoy a well-recorded album or two. There is some aspect of critical listening to my intentional listening, but I'm not going deep into the recordings. I might enjoy listening for new aspects of particular albums or songs I hadn't paid attention to prior or whatever. Like others have said, listen in a way that you enjoy on the system you have put together.
What exactly is critical listening? Who does it?
I'm supposed to listen to every single instrument within a mixture of instruments. And somehow evaluate every aspect of what I'm listening to and somehow all this is critical listening.
This is supposed to bring enjoyment?
I'm just listening for the Quality of what I'm listening to with all the instruments playing and how good they sound hopefully.
And I'm tired of answering that I'm not a robot all the time. That's being critical.