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Audio gear, sonic quality when you listen in less (or non-) focused ways

I'm wondering about how folks listen to their audio, and to what degree the quality of the sound is important, or, perhaps how it differs.

Here are four kinds of listening I can think of. (Did I miss any?)

FL - Focused listening -- sitting at focal point, concentrating on music and/or acoustic qualities.

SFL - Semi-focused listening -- listening is the central but not only activity (sitting in front of audio, listening but also reading, playing games, emailing, etc.)

CL - Casual listening -- listening to music but also involved in equally important tasks (cooking, doing dishes, laundry, etc.)

AL - Accidental listening -- music is on but it is in the background, mostly (music at party, just on for ambience)

For the kinds of listening other than FL, what do hope your audio gear can produce? What kinds of tonalities, soundstage, lows/mids/highs, transient response, dynamics, etc. does it need to produce? Are there other things that this gear needs to do that is different than your main rig? How good does the sound need to be? (In other words, how cheap a solution are you willing to get away with for those other kinds of listening? What do you use?)

128x128hilde45
clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 

@hilde45 

Listening while driving is an interesting case.  I have done many long drives with a pile of CDs to listen to.  If I am concentrating on the music my driving goes into totally automatic unconscious mode, as it can do in other circumstances like if I am thinking about something.

How do I know?  Because something happens in the traffic and conscious driving input comes back into play.  I realise that for the previous 15 minutes or 25 miles I have been driving without being conscious of doing so.

I am sure other long-time drivers experience this.

You might be wondering how many traffic accidents I have but it is well over 30 years since I had one and that was another driver jumping the lights and T-boning my car.

barts's avatar
barts
720 posts
 

@hilde45 

FL - Focused listening -- sitting at focal point, concentrating on music and/or acoustic qualities.

I think your first category is actually two and should be split into FLE (focused listening equipment) and FLM (focus listening music).  Once a system is up and running to the owners satisfaction FLE, then it switches to FLM.  That is unless one is really suffering from Audiophile Nervosa.  Actually I find that sad as it is all about the music...

Regards,

barts 

asctim
492 posts
 

If I'm doing focused listening on the music, the sound quality is surprisingly unimportant - so long as nothing is horribly off I'll be OK because I'm focusing on the music itself and my mind is able to do a tremendous amount of "error correction" for less than optimal sound quality. If I'm doing focused listening on the sound quality, then of course the sound quality is everything. 

SFL - the best kind of listening in my opinion  in terms of listening for sound quality. I become less judgmental of sound quality and generally enjoy myself a lot. I do notice sound quality in this setting, so it's still fairly important. As long as there are some noticeable good qualities to the sound I'll get a lot of enjoyment, picking up on the good without being very critical of the bad. I think I enjoy music the most in SFL too. Music can be listened to as a total point of focus, but it often works so well to enhance other activities when attention is shared between the two that I think I have richer overall experiences that way.

CL & AL  As long as it's not screeching horrible sound quality doesn't matter too much in these settings for me. It's still nice to have some quality though.

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