@wokeuptobose said: "The challenge at my develpomental listening stage is to unpack what I am hearing and what is missing compared to each other, and to a sunjective benchmark in my mind of what that piece of music should sound like."
If your experience is anything like mine, comparing equipment, different pressings, or vacuum tubes, unless something is downright awful, the outcome, for me, is often mixed; that is, unit A will have certain strengths and weaknesses, and unit B will have a different set of compromises. The trick in my estimation is to match these strengths and weaknesses in a complementary way. Easier said than done.
As for listening skills related to music (as opposed to the failure to comprehend oral discourse), I am of the view that it does not take golden ears. Exposure is the key--- to real instruments, to the various ways they are presented in a recording, and ultimately, to how effectively that recording presents an illusion of real instruments in your room.
Granted, every instrument (at least pianos) sound different from each other, but if you know what a concert grand is capable of doing live, you realize how hard it is to replicate the gravitas of the real instrument, and its ambience-- the harmonics and their decay after that initial hammer strike.
I listen to a fair amount of hard rock, but rarely use that to assess gear or ancillaries.
I do not think you need musical training to hear and appreciate all of this (I have such training, but it bears little relationship to the role of the listener --as opposed to say a recordist or mixer).
If your experience is anything like mine, comparing equipment, different pressings, or vacuum tubes, unless something is downright awful, the outcome, for me, is often mixed; that is, unit A will have certain strengths and weaknesses, and unit B will have a different set of compromises. The trick in my estimation is to match these strengths and weaknesses in a complementary way. Easier said than done.
As for listening skills related to music (as opposed to the failure to comprehend oral discourse), I am of the view that it does not take golden ears. Exposure is the key--- to real instruments, to the various ways they are presented in a recording, and ultimately, to how effectively that recording presents an illusion of real instruments in your room.
Granted, every instrument (at least pianos) sound different from each other, but if you know what a concert grand is capable of doing live, you realize how hard it is to replicate the gravitas of the real instrument, and its ambience-- the harmonics and their decay after that initial hammer strike.
I listen to a fair amount of hard rock, but rarely use that to assess gear or ancillaries.
I do not think you need musical training to hear and appreciate all of this (I have such training, but it bears little relationship to the role of the listener --as opposed to say a recordist or mixer).