Maybe critical listening skills are bad?

@ erik_squires

Great topic...

During the past few years I have reducing my collection, replacing gear, rolling tubes, etc.  So I have had the same challenges, thousands of times.

To me:

A. 'critical listening skills' are just that... critical.  When needed, I listen to the attack of a bowed violin, the fingering of a oboe, the plucking Fender bass, or cymbal crass.  I listen accuracy of tone and harmonic structure.  I listen to decay (is it natural, truncated, over-extended?)  I also listen for micro-dynamics (did a flute-players air wobble, or did a tape-splice change the volume of a acoustic guitar?).

Yet, critical listening is for a comparison, and should never be a life-style. 

B. the other-side of the coin is the wholistic or gestalt experience eloquently discussed above by so many...

I prefer many days of hearing music on new gear (especially speakers), allowing myself to remember this music played on my earlier gear... the result is very satisfying.  I know my efforts have paid-off when I relax and truly hear the music. 

In other words, I am no longer searching for a sound, I can simply let the music come to me...

In my home, critical listening and casual hearing both play a vital role.

I hope this is fertile ground...

+1 @inagroove 

Although engagement/resonated/satisfying is more important than critical listening, critical listening and engagement are not mutually exclusive.  Both critical listening + engagement are used to evaluate components for potential purchase, engagement is what I seek in my everyday use in my audio chain.

@phusis I agree with you about different types of speakers needing different types of room acoustic treatments. The apogee duetta 2 speakers I own sound better with little to no room treatments, though I do have them 82" from the wall behind them. My dynamic speakers sound too bright without some room treatments.

There's no endless system, this is a hobby with no price tag.  For crtical listening, I would just take out my Luxman 590AXII.  Its the amp to have for audiophiles, I use this amp to do audiophile listening and love it.

@inagroove 
"Fertile ground?"  Wear your boots...no, not the 'on the town' pair, nooo....
...sometimes waders and shoulder-length rubber gloves seem to be advisable....

I've trended to align with @mahgister that ultimately The Room dictates what will occur within it, and care taken with that in mind and hand will determine if one's expenditures will yield the desired effects....

The fact that I've seemed to always have been doomed to that side trip in the rabbit hole hasn't stopped me from making the attempt to tame the dragon and make it purrr...

If not perfection (typ.? no....), at least to 'practical satisfaction'....because Reality Manipulation is a bitch.  Having adopted active room eq quite awhile ago, it helps but does not cure that gulf between 'There' and a mere reproduction of 'there'...

Long-term dipole and omni sort, I finally bet on 'Ignoring the Room', quite like a variant of HT surround with no screen other than one's audible version of one.

(...Yes, there is a screen, but that's beside the point but effected by....but...🤷‍♂️...)

One means is running a pair of calibrated mics to a pair of eq's in parallel and monitor in R/T....tweak to sweet....in the midst. 

A little extreme, but when running this, that, and assorted junque you wring out of it all what it can achieve and you like....

Works for me....only has to, actually.  ;)