What exactly is critical listening? Who does it?

Critical listening is what reviewers do when a component is being evaluated. It involves knowing specific reference recordings, but it also requires some familiarity with acoustic instruments (for reviewers). A reviewer has to know how close to the ’real thing’ a component comes. And it is usually acoustic because the harmonics of such instruments are assumed to be  known to most people. And that’s the problem.

A very large cross-section of people - nowadays - listen to mostly electronic music and otherwise "processed" music, something with no analogue in real life. Additionally, it seems that the last two (American) generations of  students have had to take  very little training in music (classes/band practice, you name it), and consequently, when people get into audio with no knowledge of how instruments sound, it is hard for them to do any ’critical listening.’ What are they basing their assessment on? A Hammond B-52?? One could base an assessment on that, but only if other instruments are also involved so that one can arrive at the best conclusion as to the traits of the component under review.

And while it doesn’t have to be acoustic, people are more familiar with say, a guitar than they are a synthesizer of whatever other electronic instruments there are.

So, critical listening  is how you determine the traits of a component. Does it only play loud, or can it play soft, softer and softest and conversely loud, louder, loudest? Do you notice whether or not it is tonally right or is it ’off’ a bit? Does it have dynamics only in the upper midrange, or does it have dynamic expansion in all the other frequencies as well?

That is what critical listening is. 

After weeks  of carefully listening while setting up my new speakers, (critical listening) Now I spend most of the time  reading while I listen. Sometimes, I’ll listen with my eyes closed and try to pick out locations of voices and instruments, so I guess that’s critical listening.  But as an example, when the Eagles Hell Freezes Over album came out I started listening to it and stopped dead when California started. I cranked up the volume and started the song again. I listened to it 4-5 times taking in every nuance of the song before I listened to the rest of the album.

the concept of doing ’critical listening’ is simply listening with some sort of specific discovery in mind. as opposed to listening just to listen and enjoy the music, enjoy the musical journey, and having your mind free of the need to discover something. this to me brings the highest level of musical experience from my system.

some of this comes down to semantics. if you are comparing performances, or maybe drum solos, or vocalists, in some ways that is critical listening. OTOH my viewpoint is that is more non critical listening in an audiophile sense.

OTOH if you are listening for some aspect of the sound, or how gear performs, or how the room sounds, those type objectives push it to critical listening. and this type listening can become fatiguing and is less pleasurable. not to say that i don’t still enjoy intense critical listening. it can be fun especially if i get a question answered about something significant. so it’s useful to know how to do that too. 

while listening our minds are going to wander and all sorts of musical or sonic things might come to mind. but my viewpoint is that if we start our session without an agenda, and just let the music happen, that is non critical listening and the place i want to be most of the time. and non critical listening ends up revealing the most truth about my system since my mind is the most open to what the music is really doing.

I thankfully don't engage in audiophile nonsense such as "critical" listening. that is such BS it is funny. As if we were in the studio when the recording was taking place. the self fellation that occurs in these circles is comical

Suppose I want to compare the sound of the same radio program via streamer/DAC vs. broadcast (FM tuner). I simply switch between input X and input Y on the preamp. That's an example of critical listening, and it's neither nonsense nor self-flattery. Or I want to compare the sound of preamp A vs. preamp B into the same amp (one on balanced, the other on RCA). Just switch between the two inputs by pushing button on front panel of amp. That's another example of critical listening, and a useful one. The list of potential listening tests is pretty much limitless, but of course, once satisfied, we lean back and enjoy until some other aspect of the system warrants our critical attention.