What kind of listener are you?

Once upon a time in my distant bell-bottomed past, I actually got on the Rate A Record segment of the Dick Clark show. Before me and my two fellow record raters went on, either Dick Clark himself or an underling told us to try and do more than simply say, "It’s got a good beat and I can dance to it." When my turn came I mumbled something about the piece having a great arrangement. Dick actually complimented me afterwards. For doing the segment I got a fistful of pre-recorded cassette tapes.

I am generally a "musical" listener.  But I can be analytical.  Both musical and reproduction wise.  I enjoy the oem Bose in my car just fine. 
One night while preparing dinner, my girlfriend asked why does the piano sound so "Stereoy"   Beethoven piano sonatas.  I went to get a good listen.  They placed the microphones Inside the piano.  Very close mic'ed.  Like what you would hear sitting playing the piano.
I can turn it off and on.  Being a trumpet and french horn player, violins
are ALWAYS to my right.  Not so when listening on the other side or at home.

I discovered after many years that by comparison with many others, I am a skilled listener...

Not because my hearing abilities are better at all... Without being deaf, I am old...

Not because I am a musician, not at all, Alas!...

I enjoy listening music through a good room and with a good audio system, which I learn how to create with my homemade experiments...


It takes me some times to realize why I can sense ,very swiftly, some minute differences with these ordinary hearing capabilities...


The answer is simple:
Each musical sound convey an emotional charge, positive or negative, and if the direct memory of the sound itself is very short lived, the indirect impact on the emotion is long lived in the memory.... Then when I recognized a sound , I dont keep the memory of a past sound pattern to compare it to a new one, because they are already gone and forgotten; I recognize inside me a satisfaction or a dissatifaction that goes on with the increase or a decrease of the S.Q. and his capacity to convey the rightful musicality and timbre...I can compare my past emotions to the new emotion, not a past sound to a new one at all....It is my brain- body which remember his feeling or the effect of the sound on itself, not the sound itself, then he enjoy an increase of S.Q. or not ....

Emotion is the thinking creative memory of music...


Without this unconscious emotional computer inside me it would had been impossible for me to experiment with my ears only and give to myself the conditions to create my audio system at all...


« My emotions are like numbers and my unconscious is the calculator» Groucho Marx

« I had 2 ears because 2 engineers are better than one» Groucho Marx

« If your ears are not very accurate why do you trust them so much? Because it is all that I have» Groucho Marx

While I have finally developed an ability to discern I also have lost a lot of my snobby ways and love listening to all kinds of systems. I have five set up now. 
Also listen to all kinds of music now. Pretty much the full gambit although a lot of new music I haven’t figured out yet. 
I would say I am one quarter analytical but I let that part pass quickly and just enjoy the glorious waves.