Mid level listening


I think that when listening to music it’s best to intently listen for the music rather than to the beauties of the sound production. In my opinion that is the most enduring pleasure you can get from your system. Unfortunately, for whatever reason it doesn’t always happen.   When you can’t seem to get fully into the music there’s something I’m calling mid level listening where you listen for the enjoyment of both SQ and the music itself.  I know ideally that should always happen to a great degree but it doesn’t always, which leads us to be dissatisfied with our rig.  
What do you think?

rvpiano

I completely agree with the poster's first three sentences.  It is also something I have been pondering recently. I am lucky to have a number of friends and relatives with good, well set up systems. Most of us actively pursue expanding our musical horizons, finding new (to us) music in many genres, thus continuing our joy and excitement in our hi-fi hobby and contentment with our existing systems. Two of these folks, however, do not, causing them to often experience Audiophilia Nervosa and general discontent with their systems. I feel bad for their lack of enthusiasm and struggle with how to encourage them to continue the discovery of unfamiliar, remarkable music. 

Vinyl. Years ago, I used to listen to the equipment as some records sounded excellent and some were not good at all. So I was always avoiding the lesser recordings. This scenario is extremely common and is a symptom of an immature system. My systems have slowly evolved and everything sounds great. I don’t even think about what I play, or what condition it’s in. It's all about the beauty of the music, and the magic of the old technology reproduction chain.

well, I just listen to the music I like. no need to overanalyse. I notice little and subtle things, but I don’t go listening to a song for a specific section only. that would be miserable. If I like a song, I like it as a whole.

 

Thankfully I have a setup that lends itself to just letting the music shine and that is all it does. No over editorialisation with its own tone. Just true to the song being listened to

After 40 years in Audio ,owning a Audio store for a decade, it seems as technologies move forward especially digital I have bought several digital upgrades i the last few years, as well as trying to buy even better loudspeakers , and amplification 

For me, the music is the most important thing. I read people say a certain system got their toes tapping. To me, music is what gets my toes tapping, head bobbing, etc; I had no more problem doing it with a handheld transistor radio when I was 16 than I do today with a far, far more expensive and superior system.