When are people going to wake up and realize listening is a skill?


Thirty years ago I realized my lifelong dream of owning a 911. This is a fast car and so first thing I did was join PCA to get some track experience in order to be able to drive safely at speed. Of course I already knew how to drive. I was a "good driver" much better than most, etc, etc. 

PCA Driver Ed begins with several hours of classroom study. Track rules, safety, and some car control skills- braking, steering, throttle control. Yeah, yeah, whatever let's go!    

Then at the track they put you in your car with an instructor and you head out onto the track driving so freaking slow, actually normal freeway driving speed but it seems slow because, race track. So we play follow the leader with the instructor pointing out cones. Braking cones, turn-in cone, apex cone, track out cone. Each turn is numbered 1 thru 9, and there's turn worker stations, and they have flags, and you need to be watching and know what they mean, because you screw up and that is it your day is done. One full 20 min session, all the excitement of a tour bus.  

Bear with me. There's a connection here. Trust me. 

It goes on like this all day until finally we are signed off to drive solo but then there is an accident, flat bed, that's it for the day. 

Next time out I am so super confident instead of novice I sign up for Intermediate. Same cars, only the Intermediate drivers are supposed to somehow be better. Whatever.   

So out I go and Holy Crap everyone is passing me! I am driving as fast as I possibly can and being passed by everyone! Not only that, if you have ever driven as fast as you possibly can then you know this means braking as late as you possibly can, cornering as fast as you can, all of it. Which without fear of police is pretty damn fast! So fast I am not at all used to it, and so by the end of 20 min am literally sweating and exhausted!  

But I keep at it. Turns out all that classroom talk is about driving skills that are absolutely essential, not only to know but to be able to do. Threshold braking is braking right at the edge of lockup. Right at the very edge. Those cones are there for reference, to help you delay braking as long as possible. The turn-in cones are where you start turning, apex cone where you are right at the inside edge of the turn, track-out where you come out the other side. Do all this while at the very limit of traction and you are going very fast indeed. Without- and this is the essential part- without really trying to go fast.  

Learn the skills, practice the techniques until you are able to execute smoothly, efficiently, and consistently, and you will be fast. Without ever really trying to go fast.   

The connection here is, everyone thinks they hear just fine. Just like they think they drive just fine. In the classroom they talk about threshold braking, the late apex line, and controlling weight transfer with throttle. Just like here we talk about grain, glare, imaging and sound stage.   

I left one part out. All the track rats, they all start out talking about horsepower, springs and spoilers, thinking these are what makes the car fast. They are, sort of. But really it is the driver. By the time I was an instructor myself it was easy to go out with those same Intermediate drivers and it was like the commute to work it was so easy. My car was the same. Only my skills were greater.  

So when are people gonna wake up and realize listening is just like this? Nobody expects to become a really good golfer, tennis player or rock climber just by going out and doing it. Why are so many stuck talking watts? When are they gonna realize that is just like track rats talking hp?


128x128millercarbon

Showing 11 responses by millercarbon

I am nice and kind with those who are nice and kind to me. The others should thank their lucky stars, because I am as Jack Reacher would say being gentle.

For those who may be interested in learning a little something about driving, I was indeed a PCA Driving Instructor. Also Autocross Instructor, and Driver Skills Instructor. Nowhere in any of that is the word, "racing". It is just a fact, and you could check it out.

Driving is as Bob Bondurant concisely stated the art of controlling weight transfer so as to maximize the functions of acceleration, braking, and cornering. Please note: the art of controlling weight transfer.

This is a main difference between driving and operating a motor vehicle. The operator of a motor vehicle thinks the car goes where he steers. The driver knows the car responds to the contact patch. Under hard cornering the car can actually be steered by throttle, which is why one of the skills we teach is called throttle steer.

Some of this instruction is done on a track. This confuses those easily confused. That is not a dig, just a fact. Those less hateful and genuinely interested in learning never have these misunderstandings.

When people say these things, deliberately ignoring essential words like "racing" I often wonder, how dumb do they think people are? But then I realize who they are writing for, and the question answers itself.
This will be news to precisely no one, but the level of reading comprehension here is dismal. Nowhere in anything I wrote was anything about me giving racing car driving lessons. That was entirely made up by someone with a lot more imagination and desire to push a personal narrative than anything. A sad, spiteful, green with jealousy narrative at that.
The word you were looking for realworldaudio is targeted.  Change that one word and, well said.
barts-
Hey MC,
I think the track analogy works rather well inasmuch as its a description of how anyone can get better at a skill. Many years ago JA in Stereophile (I believe it was JA) posted a similar analogy using the learning curve of a radiologist reading x-rays. Starts out as blobs of black and white and as the radiologists skill set increases it eventually turns into a definitive picture.

Robert Harley uses this same x-ray metaphor in his The Complete Guide to High End Audio. Being an x-ray tech myself it definitely applies.  

An x-ray is a 2D image of 3D anatomy. At first it is nothing but shades of gray. Then you learn anatomy and physics and the shades take on meaning. Now hardly a day goes by I'm not explaining to some MD how to interpret, which calls for understanding not only the underlying anatomy but the physics of the imaging system including the x-ray beam itself.

This experience blows out of the water the claim that all you have to do is listen a lot. It does no good to practice, unless you know what it is you are practicing. It is the very nature of improvement to not know what it is that you need to know! Every single student I ever had not only did not know how to drive, they literally did not know what it was they were doing wrong, or how to do it right, or have even the slightest idea what it is they need to learn. When I say every single one, I mean every single one- including myself!

That is why it would be so nice if the haters would drop the act. But wish in one hand hope in the other.....
In fact if I'd gone and learned special driving skills I'd probably have enjoyed the car less and less.
Chris Harris has mad skills. Doesn't seem to have done his driving enjoyment the least bit of harm.  
https://youtu.be/MGIwvoLPoAU?t=5 


asctim-
So what can we test about Millercarbon's hearing to know that he's attained some important level of skill, and what can be done with that skill?

The proof is in the pudding. Read the comments. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367
middlemass:
phasemonger wrote:
"About MC: I’ve learned a lot from his posts and tried many of his recommendations. Most of what I’ve tried from him has made a BIG difference in sound quality for me. For some reason I don’t hear the arrogance in his tone others hear. I hear exuberance and passion."

+1 Nailed it.

Yup. And a diabolical sense of humor. Most delightful of all, there are those who totally get it. Then there are those so hopeless, no matter how many times I say "rent free" they just don’t get it.

And some think Tarantino is the master of meta. https://youtu.be/V0iLXy8X5Zs?t=7
ghdprentice-
Good analogy. It really takes a lot of learning and experience to improve listening skills and develop the vocabulary to understand and describe what you hear.

How right you are. And it don’t come easy.

But it can be learned.

Vocabulary is essential. There is a very real debate to be had as to whether we even can be said to hear things we do not have words for. All words are defined in terms of other words, and so this gets real deep real fast. But there can be no doubt vocabulary is at the heart of it.

So, in effect, there is a personal threshold that must be crossed: either you are willing to do everything it may take in order to try to bump everything up to the next level, or you must remain content with a certain level of 'status quo'. Fans of the latter may typically say "it's the journey, not the destination", so a kind of philosophical attitude just seems to go with the territory. 

Well said.
So are we talking about listening, going fast, making noise or Porsche?

Yes.  1 is awesome.