Maybe critical listening skills are bad?


In another thread about how to A/B compare speakers for a home I was thinking to myself, maybe the skills a reviewer may use to convey pros and cons of a speaker to readers is a bad skill to use when we evaluate hardware and gear?

I'm not against science, or nuance at all.  I was just thinking to myself, do I really want to spend hours A/B testing and scoring a speaker system I want to live with?

I do not actually.  I think listening for 2 days to a pair of speakers, and doing the same to another pair I need to focus first on what made me happy.  Could I listen to them for hours?  Was I drawn to spend more time with music or was I drawn to writing  minutiae down?

And how much does precise imaging really do for my enjoyment by the way?  I prefer to have a system that seems endless.  As if I'm focusing my eyes across a valley than to have palpable lung sounds in my living room.

Anyway, just a thought that maybe we as consumers need to use a different skill set when buying than reviewers do when selling.

erik_squires

If you don't want to do any critical listening, then just treat it like normal. What I mean is just listen to it. Do you like it "better" maybe, or swap back once and see if it's now "worse". 

My thought is if it makes you happy, holds your attention, you are going to use it. Then it's "better". This entire process is suppose to bring joy. If it does not, then it's not the right piece.

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@baylinor wrote:

... paying attention to the room acoustics is of primary importance if you ever want to truly be able to appreciate the differences that various equipments provide.

@mahgister wrote:

Acoustics rules audio... Sorry for the sellers of gear upgrades...

I agree with the stated consequence mentioned by @baylinor, and how paying attention to acoustics (which can mean a lot, really, and depending on the context could point in different directions on how to implement acoustic measures, or not) provides for a better foundation of assessing the differences of a variation of audio gear.

However, contrary to the claim made by @mahgister above I don't see how that should negatively impact sellers of audio equipment - quite the opposite; better optimized acoustics will benefit all levels of audio gear/solutions/configurations and thus tell them apart and make them sound their best, not level them out. 

Some speakers principles with a more narrow directivity behavior - horn-loaded and line sources in particular - don't call for the same degree of acoustic measures, and quite a few people, not least the ones with horn-loaded speakers, actually prefer a more lightly damped listening room for sounding more natural. What's interesting is seeing those who previously owned direct radiating, dynamic driver-fitted and low efficiency speakers and how they rid their listening room of damping materials, significantly even, with the coming of high eff. horn-loaded speakers. There's also something to be said of a listening environment that's a naturally inhabited area with furniture, plants, paintings, rugs/skins, shelves and other that aids overall mental well-being here, as opposed to a more clinically looking and heavily treated/damped space or man cave/dungeon even. 

Sorry for verging off-topic, @erik_squires - I guess I'll leave it at that. 

And how much does precise imaging really do for my enjoyment by the way?

@erik_squires A speaker that can't do precise imaging is having problems that cause that. They may affect the enjoyment of the speaker in other ways that may not be immediately obvious. These days any quality speaker should be able to image quite well.

That is after all what Blumlein's stereo concept is all about.

Agree if precise imaging is not happening that may be a symptom of something not quite right elsewhere.  Precise imaging always matters to me personally.