What is "critical listening"?

That's interesting Detlof, cause for me it is the opposite. I am much more a critical listener in music lover mode. This goes beyond the audio system and into live music.

I realized other people noticed back when I lived in Rhode Island. A year when the Philharmonic was auditioning new Music Director candidates, a friend who is on their Board of Directors invited me to every concert that was conducted by a candidate for the position. (Their premium seats). They wanted my feedback. They said I was the one person they knew who was not a subscriber who would be able to rank them properly and be able to explain why. I guess I was like Simon on American Idol (but nicer)!!

As far as recorded music; given a choice between CD-A and CD-B; CD-A has the better sound; CD-B has the better performance. I always choose CD-B.

Shortly saying, it's when you're in critical condition but you still can listen :)

Critical listening occurs when you listen to the reproduction. Musical enjoyment occurs when you listen to the performance. From rain on the roof or birds chirping, from clock/radio or high $$$ system, to live music, the choice is yours to behold.

Sugarbrie, you make a fascinating point, which my thoughts only brushed briefly, when I wrote my post. In the sense you write, I would agree with you: In music lover mode critical listening in fact does not stop, but with me, it then goes right into the music, not into the system anymore and through the years our ears get trained and we learn to develop a language to express what we aurally percieve. I was close to a person, deeply musically trained, who was close to Menuhin and we went all over Europe when he concerted there and I also learnt to my own amazement I must say, that my "critique" was listened to and went over well. But then, mind you, M. was an extremely cultured and polite gentleman in the true sense of the word.....and yes, good sound and bad performance generally makes me angry with frustration but I will listen to Abado's rendering of the Beethoven symphonies, although the CDs are probably amongst the worst, DGG has ever managed to bring out. Cheers,

Do both: listen "critically" at first, using my thinking mind to identify incongruities in how stereo sounds like sound I hear everyday, then, let go of "critical", analytic faculty and perceive musical meaning from deeper symmetry where desire to think about sound fades. Neither mode of perception is "lesser" than the other and both exist on a continuum of perception, so, in our experience, they are not separate (until we separate them by talkng about them). What "lessens" the ability to perceive is when one adheres to an assumption (thinking) that "critical" listening is the only valid means of deriving meaning from music, or, contra, that only trans-thinking listening is valid for saying what music is, or how good a stereo is. Each sight reveals different aspects of a stereo performance.

I think and listen, then I don't think and listen. There is no problem.