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Second opinions — how have others (including non-audiophiles) helped you?

Have been building a system since December 2020, just about at a place where I can rest for a while. Very enjoyable process of researching, trying, listening. Last phase, room treatments, are just about done.

Along the way, it's been very useful to bring in other family members and some close friends to listen and tell me what they hear. Most are non-audiophiles. But what jumped out to them helped me recalibrate what I was attending to and listen anew.

I was really trying to listen critically — sometimes with checklists of qualities to pay attention to. But myopia is a hard problem to see around, if you will. In some very important moment (including speaker tryouts), they pointed to obvious problems which I was missing.

Here's one recent example. I had been trying to tame some bass peaks and loaded the front of the room up with panels. I got those peaks under control — tight bass, well placed imaging, natural sounding instruments. Then, I had my wife sit down, and in a couple of seconds she noticed that things sounded "constrained" and "missing air." I pulled a couple bass traps out of there and things opened up — "Ah, that's better," she said. As I sat to listen, she was right. Better reverb, more space, lightness.

That's just one example. My question to anyone wanting to share is how other people (including non-audiophiles) helped you improve your system.
128x128hilde45
mastering92
870 posts
 
They haven't been able to help me with my system.

Most people listen to music as a source of passive entertainment. They don't take it seriously. I'm told it sounds amazing...but that's it. Give a random person 2 pairs of headphones to try and they will say the sound is the same. That's because they aren't listening for differences.

As for the audiogon forum, I have received some suitable feedback. Folks here are knowledgeable and polite, but there is the odd bad apple every now and then. Inciting conflict on a forum is not going to make life better for anyone lol.

Show offs who talk about spending x amount of money are especially annoying. 
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drrsutliff
858 posts
 
I agree that many who have never experienced a “better quality audio producer” whether headphones or a full room system tend to be unable to discern minor nuances of the presentation since, I believe, they are pretty immersed in just the total quality of the experience compared to what they commonly employ for music.  I usually find that with some directed questions on my part certain individuals can absolutely start to hear differences and learn the vocabulary we tend to use in this hobby.  I have had successes and failures...  Sadly a couple of my successes possibly blame me for their current personal immersion in this crazy hobby, or at least their significant others does ;)
petg60
1,486 posts
 
You can always get a valid response or comment from a non experienced ear. In the end if they are drawn in to it you are on the right track and leave you wandering if not interested.
Spouses are getting used to it and have good reactions in changes. You only have to play the right tracks.

G


hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
4,974 posts
 
I have a sense that many people are much more experienced than mastering92 gives them credit for. They need some direction as to what to pay attention to and how to describe it. After all, people already use their hearing quite carefully to get around in the world and most love music. They have a lot of practice in careful listening. What they need is some direction from audiophiles about how to describe what we're especially interested in. That's the point of my post -- to ask how people who have been able to address your concerns (with or without your help) have helped you improve your system.

I read an article long ago which pushed back against the idea that people had lost most of their sense of smell. What researchers discovered was that people lacked the language to designate what they were experiencing, and that with some training in olfactory vocabulary, their sense of smell seemed to improve. Of course, their senses were fine -- what improved was their communication about their senses. And as any wine expert can tell you, this can feed back into their ability to discriminate. Hume wrote about this long ago, by the way.
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