I believe it varies with the person involved.
Think about other situations that are fatiguing, such as driving at night in the rain. You have to concentrate at a very high level to correctly interpret what you see. The paint lines between lanes are hard to see, there is a lot of glare from oncoming headlights and visibility is just downright poor. Your brain can expend a lot of processing power to "correct" the information it is receiving. Most people feel absolutely drained after a long drive in those conditions.
Same thing with concentrating on a difficult test where a minor misreading of a test question could lead to a wrong answer.
Our brain has an amazing ability to sort through the information it receives (think of concentrating on one conversation in a noisy room), but that effort comes with a price tag attached. The harder it has to work the faster we feel worn down by the task at hand.
It is no different with listening to music. However, different people listen for different things. A particular overemphasis or deficiency may bother one person (and thus require more mental correction) more than it bothers another.
As an example, one listener may value midrange tonal accuracy more than good bass. Good bass with a inaccurate midrange will annoy that listener while another listener may be blase about a slightly off midrange yet strain mightily to supply the missing info to a bass line that is important to him. There are obviously a wide variety of parameters for each listener to prioritize in a fashion that is important to them.
That said, some errors are more likely to bug a high percentage of listeners. Edgy distortions probably top the list of near universal annoyances, but even then we all know people who are perfectly happy with their table radio with the blown speaker.
Think about other situations that are fatiguing, such as driving at night in the rain. You have to concentrate at a very high level to correctly interpret what you see. The paint lines between lanes are hard to see, there is a lot of glare from oncoming headlights and visibility is just downright poor. Your brain can expend a lot of processing power to "correct" the information it is receiving. Most people feel absolutely drained after a long drive in those conditions.
Same thing with concentrating on a difficult test where a minor misreading of a test question could lead to a wrong answer.
Our brain has an amazing ability to sort through the information it receives (think of concentrating on one conversation in a noisy room), but that effort comes with a price tag attached. The harder it has to work the faster we feel worn down by the task at hand.
It is no different with listening to music. However, different people listen for different things. A particular overemphasis or deficiency may bother one person (and thus require more mental correction) more than it bothers another.
As an example, one listener may value midrange tonal accuracy more than good bass. Good bass with a inaccurate midrange will annoy that listener while another listener may be blase about a slightly off midrange yet strain mightily to supply the missing info to a bass line that is important to him. There are obviously a wide variety of parameters for each listener to prioritize in a fashion that is important to them.
That said, some errors are more likely to bug a high percentage of listeners. Edgy distortions probably top the list of near universal annoyances, but even then we all know people who are perfectly happy with their table radio with the blown speaker.