Getting into the music

@rvpiano This comment caught my attention:

Then, when I listen to my main system, I’m somehow expecting better than I perceive it to be and I’m back in hyper-critical mode once more. It’s frustrating.

There’s a phenomenon called the "uncanny valley." It was invented, originally about robots, but I think it applies here. With robots (via Wikipedia):

"as the appearance of a robot is made more human, some observers’ emotional response to the robot becomes increasingly positive and empathetic, until it reaches a point beyond which the response quickly becomes strong revulsion. However, as the robot’s appearance continues to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once again and approaches human-to-human empathy levels."

I suspect this is happening with music, as relayed in these posts.

Music goes from being very unlike live music (e.g. crude but lovable) to being close but not close enough (e.g. in expensive or elaborate systems).

When music reproduction is "close to live music but conspicuously lacking" our attention is fixated upon the sound, on the sonic flaws. And that distracts from the music. It would be like reading a text in an elaborate font. You can tell what it says, but the font is so distracting you wind up fixating on the letters.

If this description applies to your musical experiences, then the goal is to find the "good enough" rig, which many seem to be pointing to, here. This would include "good enough" room acoustics.

In short, you need to stay out of the "uncanny valley" of sound. Just before it, I'd say.

Interesting comment.

Very good explanation... Thanks ...

My opinion as i stated it about the minimal acoustical satisfaction threshold condition and his acoustics factors is too abstract but is related to the concrete phenomena hilde45 described well about human intention and attention ...

Interesting and very clear and deeper ...

@rvpiano This comment caught my attention: Then, when I listen to my main system, I’m somehow expecting better than I perceive it to be and I’m back in hyper-critical mode once more. It’s frustrating. There’s a phenomenon called the "uncanny valley." It was invented, originally about robots, but I think it applies here. With robots (via Wikipedia): "as the appearance of a robot is made more human, some observers’ emotional response to the robot becomes increasingly positive and empathetic, until it reaches a point beyond which the response quickly becomes strong revulsion. However, as the robot’s appearance continues to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once again and approaches human-to-human empathy levels." I suspect this is happening with music, as relayed in these posts. Music goes from being very unlike live music (e.g. crude but lovable) to being close but not close enough (e.g. in expensive or elaborate systems). When music reproduction is "close to live music but conspicuously lacking" our attention is fixated upon the sound, on the sonic flaws. And that distracts from the music. It would be like reading a text in an elaborate font. You can tell what it says, but the font is so distracting you wind up fixating on the letters. If this description applies to your musical experiences, then the goal is to find the "good enough" rig, which many seem to be pointing to, here. This would include "good enough" room acoustics. In short, you need to stay out of the "uncanny valley" of sound. Just before it, I’d say.

Beyond technology, I think we need to consider the psychological, even the psychoanalytic. Why? Because the OP understands that he wants to enjoy the music. The question becomes, for me, how have we gotten so wrapped up in the creation of simulation?

In part, it's the obsession is with continued advances in technology, ones that induce people to believe these advances will make the simulation indistinguishable from reality. And with the advance of virtual reality and now mixed reality, it's really immersive. 

The challenge raised by the OP, is how to switch modes in how we listen -- to distinguish when to be critical and when to just listen. This is an internal, psychological challenge. An analogy for me is with food. At 59, I’m still working out how form a proper relationship with food. Food presents a much larger challenge because food (unlike sound) is tied up with family/relationship feelings which, I think, reaches deeper into my sense of self and security. Food presents itself as “comfort” when it should be perceived as “nourishment.”

The ideal of “the absolute sound” is, in a sense, promising something it cannot deliver — a feeling which is generated by the meanings of music. In this sense, sonic equipment is like every other marketer’s genie — offering salvation but only delivering enslavement.

Thanks... Very well said ...

About this matter and in a nmore neurological way there is a writer that can be mentioned , if we think about awareness direction and attention modes , as related to two complemented but competing polarities of the brain as with the left and right hemispheres ... One part directed toward details and the other directed toward the wholeness of a situation etc ,,, The books of Iain McGilchrist are very interesting ...

Anyway thanks for these interesting posts hilde45 ...

Especially important sentence for any audio thread:

The ideal of “the absolute sound” is, in a sense, promising something it cannot deliver — a feeling which is generated by the meanings of music. In this sense, sonic equipment is like every other marketer’s genie — offering salvation but only delivering enslavement.