What is "critical listening"?

Personally, I think anyone who pays attention and spends some time listening to the art of the reproduction is a critical listener. My wife, who doesn't care at all about equipment, listens critically and can tell when something doesn't sound right (I'm not a mind reader so cannot determine exactly what "right" is for her). Should this type of listening get in the way of pure musical enjoyement? Nope. I really enjoy music on my crappy car radio. But I love music on my home system -- it transports me.

There are probably levels of critical listening -- sort of like a second degree black belt compared to a fifth degree black belt. Heck, I don't know where I am along that path and I really don't much care. I know what does and doesn't sound right to me but have difficulty articulating it in the exact (?) language of the press. That knowledge and language does help focus my listening though. If I remember all my sociology, language is much of the basis of focus. Therefore, a speacialized language leads to a crisper focus. It helps me to read and share ideas because it leads me to a wider focus.

For me, critical listening is a means to an end. From time to time, I focus on and notice some of the shortfalls and try to correct for the ones I care most about. After that, I really just want to enjoy. I try to reproduce jazz most effectively, which introduces some compromises in other kinds of music and that's OK. It's never perfect so why worry so long as the glaring issues are subdued (of course, everyone has their own idea of what the most glaring issues are, but mine are the only ones that matter to me) and don't get in the way.

Good question.

Wonderful dialog! It makes me dig a bit deeper and realize that the two dimensions of "listening to music" and "listening to reproduction" can easily co-exist.

Think about all the dimensions you are absorbing in a live performance. The musicians interacting with one another and the audience, watching the musicians play the tools of their trade, listening to the acoustics of the environment and listening to the music itself. At home, there is the music, the environment and the reproduction. I take delight in noticing how well the sax or bass drum sounds. And I take delight in the music. Everything works together for me. Noticing the capabilities of my system goes hand in hand with enjoying the music itself, just as noticing the character of the musicians in a live performance goes hand in hand with the music. Critical listening goes beyond the appreciation of musical reproducion and is the focus on the reproduction for purposes of diagnosing a system.

In the most negative sense, critical listening can also be noticing the worst aspects of your system whenever you listen -- hopefully, that doesn't happen much. If it does, it's time to change the system, change your priorities or change your drink ;-) Great discussion all!