What exactly is critical listening? Who does it?

Listening critically also gets easier with time / experience for a few reasons. It takes time to build the experience of what a realistic presentation sounds like - tonally, spatially, and effortlessly. And the better one’s source material, room, system, and hearing (or at least awareness of their personal hearing capabilities) are, the easier it is to understand the performance of any of the variables listed so that we may be able to critique what is contributing to what, or what is falling short.

Yes, it can be truly exhausting at times if you overdo it, but it’s a journey, not a destination, and one that, should you choose to accept its mission, you should traverse at your own pace. The key to success lies in motivation and the means to improve the variables for further fulfillment / enjoyment. Once either of those start to wane, it’s time to take a step back and stop taking it so seriously, and just try to enjoy the music. If you can’t do that, you’ll at least either have the motivation to find the variable that needs improvement so you can find more fulfillment, or you just need a time out from listening to music for a while. 

 

i know for myself personally i find the deepest most meaningful feedback about where my system is from non-critical listening.....where i am just listening without any specific agenda. it’s when the full wonder of the music seems to happen. where the music is driving my mind, not any mental baggage i’ve brought to the session.

how is the music making me feel? 

@mikelavigne Strong points here. I would add that “listening modes” are based on what we experience - a balance of what we hear or perceive we hear, and how it makes us think and feel. In my personal observation, if I am not hearing certain things about the music and it does not fulfill me emotionally, it DOES become a distraction, and I think and listen critically to understand how to address it. This is probably similar to what you explain, in your whole post above, but I know I’m not alone for being a critical listener at times for the reason of wanting to address a challenge in the system’s presentation such that it makes me feel more fulfilled. Not feeling right about the presentation or performance can be the biggest distraction of all, especially if one is fully aware of what is missing!