Listening skills: How do you learn to listen?
Double-entendre.
Had a few experiences lately that together were a stark reminder of
something known for a long time, because I lived it myself.
In
the beginning, or at any rate going back to about 1991, I was unable to
hear any difference between different CD players and DACs. Even some
amplifiers, they might not sound exactly the same but I was hard pressed
to say why.
This went on for a long time. Months. Many
months. Like okay a year. Whatever. During which time I was driving
around hitting all the Seattle/Portland area stores listening to
everything I could find. About the only difference big enough to be sure
of was receivers. They for sure are crap. But even there it was hard to
say exactly in what way. Just the difference there was glaring enough
it was obvious this is not the way to go. But that was about it.
All
during this time of course I was reading Stereophile and studying all
the reviews and building up a vocabulary of audiophile terms. The
problem, seen clearly as usual only in the rear view mirror, was not
really being able to match up the terminology with what I was hearing. I
had words, and sounds, but without meaning, having no real link or
connection between them.
One day after yet another
frustrating trip to Definitive I came home and put on my XLO Test CD and
was listening to the Michael Ruff track Poor Boy when it hit me, THIS
IS THAT SOUND!!!
What sound? Good question! The better high
end gear is more full and round and liquid and less etched or grainy.
Poor Boy is Sheffield, all tube, and so even though being played from CD
through my grainy etched mid-fi the tubey magic came through enough to
trigger the elusive connection. THIS is "that sound"!
Once
triggered, this realization grew and spread real fast. In no time at all
it became easy to hear differences between all kinds of things. "No
time at all" was probably months, but seemed like no time at all
compared to how long I was going nowhere.
What happened? There
are a near infinite number of different sonic characteristics. Attack
and decay, fundamental tone, harmonic, and timbre, those were a few of
the early ones I was able to get a handle on- but the list goes on and
on.
Just to go by experience, reading reviews, and talking to
other audiophiles it would seem most of us spend an awful lot of time
concentrating real hard on our own little list of these terms. We have
our personal audiophile checklist and dutifully run down the list. The
list has its uses but no matter how extensive the list becomes it always
remains a tiny little blip on the infinite list of all there is.
So
what brought this to mind is recently a couple guys, several in fact,
heard some of the coolest most impressive stuff I know and said....meh.
Not hearing it.
This is not a case of they prefer something else. This is not hearing any difference whatsoever. At all. None. Nada. Zip.
Like me, back in the day, with CD.
These are not noobs either. We're talking serious, seasoned, experienced audiophiles here.
I'm
not even sure it comes down to what they are listening for. Like me in
'91, hard to know what you're listening for until you know what you're
listening for.
Which comes first?
