Critical listening is necessary if one is to progress, also necessary to have a knowledge base/listening encyclopedia in order to obtain a reference or references as a goal. I spent far larger percentage of listening time in critical listening mode to my systems and others in early years, decades. Over time as I've come closer to my goals, far less time spent in this mode, mostly I admire the sound if I do go into this mode.
Critical listening mode shouldn't always be seen in a negative light, it is a necessary tool in the audiophile tool bag.
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Correct, critical doesn't necessarily involve judgement. I mentioned in another thread how in recent years more focus on qualities of the recording itself. Producers/engineers play a major role in bringing us these works of arts, I've learned to turn off the judgment cap, just let the recording come to me, much more satisfying listening sessions with this. You still the warts, they become curiosities rather than irritants.
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@mapman +1 This is more what critical listening means for me, critical listening is listening with great intention, again, critical doesn't mean judgement. On the other hand, analytical listening mode is intentionally judgemental, you are listening specifically for qualities of sound rather than sound quality. Critical listening should bring about appreciation for sound quality, I go into virtually every listening session with great intention for appreciation of sound quality, I donj't listen to my main system casually. Now sometimes during these critical listening sessions I may hear something in certain recordings that is salient to the point it brings about an intention to analyze.
After decades of practice/experience I'm always aware of the listening mode I'm in. Critical mode is my favorite mode, again, this is not a judgemental mode. At this point in my audio journey I'm never in pure music appreciation mode when I listen to my audiophile system. Per the above I'm mostly in critical listening mode, this is intentionally an appreciation for both the sound quality of my system and the performance of the musicians. And this is also necessarily an appreciation for the engineering/production values of the recording, something that seems to be completely forgotten in this discussion. The kind of appreciation I'm speaking of here is non judgmental so that recordings with flaws can be enjoyable.
Bottom line, I'd find this entire endeavor intolerable if I couldn't listen with great intent and non judgment to the musical performance, sound quality of both my system and the recording, perfection rarely if ever exists, flaws are ever existent I submit the entire reason I got into this was to have appreciation of all three of these aspects of listening to recordings on an audiophile system. If I'm only seeking musical enjoyment I can find that easily enough with relatively low end systems such as in my cars or work system, with these systems I care little about system and recording sound quality. My take is if you're not listening to your system critically, something in the system isn't aligned with your sound preferences and/or pales in comparison to some reference system you heard or have illusions about.
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Critical thinking and analytical thinking are being conflated here. I like the analogy to critical thinking, this should be a stimulating, intense exercise. Lets think about a critique, a critique doesn't have to be judgemental, it can be simple appreciation. That's how I listen during my relatively long listening sessions, I'm simply appreciating both the performance of musicians and the qualities of sound from both the recording and my system.
Now analysis is when one enters the judgemental mode. we are intentionally analyzing both the performance and sound quality, Analysis is inherently comparative as we need to have some reference for this analysis. This is the mode of listening which finds fault, cognitive dissonance and unhappiness easily arise here.
As for listening for sheer musical enjoyment, I only go here with far lesser audio systems where I need to avoid listening to sound quality since it would only cause unhappiness.
I too don't understand this seemingly increasing dismissiveness or negative connotations towards the critical. To engage in critical thinking or listening should be a highly stimulating, enjoyable, consciousness and curiosity raising activity.
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A critique may state the issue, analysis attends to the issue.
My biggest issue is with the claim listening purely for the music is the highest/best mode or goal of the audiophile. How can this be when the very essence of this hobby/obsession is sound quality. So now we're supposed to ignore sound quality and transcend into this blissful world where sound quality is of no consequence. There must be something seriously wrong with the sound quality of one's system if listening to it causes stress, discomfort.
The critical state of listening is a state where appreciation for the music, the performance of the artists, sound quality of system and recording all go hand in hand. I simply can't divorce myself from all these things when listening to my system. To appreciate all these things, and all simultaneously has always been my goal, why would I want to turn away from any of it!
And appreciation isn't necessarily an affirmation that everything is well. One can appreciate that poor recordings sound poorly, mid grade recordings have flaws, one can also appreciate that one's system may not be where one would like it. Tue critical state of listening is a mindful state where one recognizes all these imperfections yet accepts them on their own terms. I'm not going to bang my head against the wall constantly with the wrongheaded notion I'm not going to or I can't tolerate imperfection and flaws.
Certainly for most of us there eventually becomes a time when certain flaws cannot be ignored or intolerable. Recording flaws are beyond our control so we focus on system flaws, certainly critical listening has uncovered or exposed these flaws, we then enter the analytical state where analysis of these flaws and the means to repair them are formulated. Analysis is the locus for the vast majority of stress we feel comes from, often we can't determine exactly where these flaws coming from, upgrades and churning of equipment ensues. And this doesn't solve all the issues, so we go on to another cycle of upgrades and churning, far too many circles being traveled, faulty analysis the cause.
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Sound vs music or is it sound and music. Sound vs music means are we most focused on the either the sound or music, sometimes the sound most stimulates our senses other times the music. What is most salient vacillates at times for me, responsibility for this may be assigned to the recording, the music, the performance of that music or the system itself. The sound quality of the recording may detract or enhance the music itself, obviously this can be a good or bad thing.
Sound and music not in conflict or opposition. We could be 'lost' in the music, sound recedes into the subconscious. We could also become 'lost' in the sound, music recedes into the subconscious. And then there is the happy medium where sound and music become one, we are not consciously aware of the difference.
People often report being more easily seduced into just listening to music on low end systems, there is no conflict since we simply ignore the sound. This much more difficult with high end systems in which sound may become of paramount importance. How can we not be focused on sound with all that we've invested into sound! I'd suggest we're nearly always conscious of the sound of our system, especially when we are admiring the sound reproduced by our systems.
So the question becomes, is consciousness of sound considered a critical state of listening whereas lack of consciousness of it is not? Is listening to the sound inferior to listening to the music? Is consciousness of all these things a negative or critical state of listening? Is transcendence or suspension of consciousness considered to be the highest form or goal of listening to music reproduction on a high end system? I'd suggest setting and propagating this as a goal is a disservice to the audiophile community, this invites discontent by setting a nearly impossible goal.
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@emergingsoul Absolutely, perhaps audiophiles by nature are more critical than the average person. Who the hell cares about sound quality anyway, really pretty silly in the whole scheme of things.
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At one time I had this romantic system, totally drawn to the music, and then at some point I became aware I was only listening to certain types or recordings. This probably went on for a year or so prior to this awareness. So I started listening to a wider range of recordings, the defects and flaws that had been there all along suddenly became salient and I could never NOT hear those flaws from that point on. Point is I had subconsciously stopped listening critically, had a wonderful time while it lasted.
So that system goes bye bye, build the next system only to satisfy my critical listening mode. This goes on for some time until I come to realize this system not emotionally engaging, this system then goes bye bye.
So now I've been to both ends of the scale, ever since that realization I've finally been able to build a system that engages me from the critical, analytical and emotional states or perspectives. When you finally experience engagement or appreciation for all three states of consciousness you find contentment. I purposely seek engagement on all three levels, never want to go back to the need to ignore some listening perspective or avoid conscious, aka critical listening.
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@mihorn I don't get how you'd NOT appreciate and/or listen to the sound of your system if it's pleasing to the ear. For instance I cannot listen to my system without marveling at the way performers are presented with these uncanny three dimensional life size images on these utterly unique sound stages that individual recordings offer up. And I could go on and on about timbre, tonality, resolution, transparency, etc, etc. The sound and music go hand in hand, heightened sound quality brings the performers into the room and make it all the more believable. I spent decades pursuing this sound and now I'm supposed to look past it or ignore it!
I still don't get the idea that listening to the sound is a critical/bad thing when listening to high end systems. I purposely didn't listen critically with lesser systems because it exposed flaws in sound, minus the flaws one should desire to have at least some consciousness in regard to sound, the sound is in service to the music and performers.
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So I'm really having trouble with what exactly is the definition of critical listening, this what OP asked in original post.
Some state that listening to the sound of one's system is critical listening, this inferior to a mode where one transcends the sound of their system and/or eliminates consciousness of it's sound quality or qualities.
So, my question is why is this a superior mode of listening, what makes it inherently superior? And why is consciousness of sound quality or qualities necessarily a critical mode of listening? And then we have the music and the performance of that music, is there not some level of critical listening in that? We all have favorite artists, genres of music , favored performances of that music. So somehow we magically escape critical listening when we just listen to the music, some magical spell transports us to this world of no judgment, comparison, consciousness.
My take is whenever we are listening INTENTLY to music reproduced over high end systems we are inherently in critical listening mode, this applicable to the music, performance of that music and the sound quality or qualities of our systems. I assume we all got into high end audio in order to more realistically present music in our home environment, we wish to feel a closer connection to the artists and their performance of music, this requires critical attention being paid. Casual listening on the other hand is not critical listening, our attention is diverted to other things. Critical listening is listening with full attention, is not necessarily judgmental or doesn't have to be judgemental. Critical listening is listening with heightened senses, this is not a bad thing.
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I'd suggest critical listening can be broken down into two sub modes, one judgemental, the other not. Judgmental mode is for evaluation, listening to sound quality, qualities in order to compare, contrast to some reference. The other mode of critical listening is intentionally careful listening which should bring about a sense of heightened consciousness in which music, artistic performance and sound quality, qualities all serve to maintain undivided attention to this single activity of listening to music on a high end system. Music, artistic performance and sound quality should all have great salience such there should be a conscious acknowledgment and appreciation for each.
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