What exactly is critical listening? Who does it?

@mikelavigne 

I’m a big fan of all that you’ve done somewhere in the middle of a forest.  Never know what you’re gonna come across when hiking through the woods. 

what an amazing room inside a renovated barn. Angle diffusers on the ceiling, purely concert hall stuff. Remarkable.

Any updates to your system? Maybe the roof has been replaced because nothing else seems worthy of any changes. 

It is Your Listening Space, Your System, Your Choices that Forms the End Sound.

If you want to put yourself in the Listening Space Power On the System and Assess the End Sound being Produced with the focus from yourself on fault finding, then if that is your thing carry on.

If you want to put yourself in the Listening Space Power On the System and Assess the End Sound being Produced with the focus from yourself on being grateful for the Opportunity to experience Enjoyed Music, as a encounter with music well known to you or new, then if that is your thing carry on.  

If you want to put yourself in the Listening Space Power On the System and Assess the End Sound being Produced with the focus from yourself on being something in between the above, then if that is your thing carry on.

Sound created through a Audio System can have a Structure, Shaping, and Form, all able to be perceived to the point of being believable. All this to be discovered within the Sound is the result of how the recorded data is able to be extracted, then data being sent, then data being converted and amplified, then the amplified being divided to become a energy of differing frequencies merged within a Space that is detected to the system user as sound.

If one owns a 'anything', there are certain 'anything's', that the capabilities of the 'anything' will be investigated. Sometimes the discovery might not be as expected, but is quickly moved on from and become a non issue.

With Audio Equipment, the moved on from quickly to become a non issue is a real struggle for many many people.

There is restlessness and underlying discontent, there is difficulty being accepting as a result of not being thoroughly satisfied and the sensing the experiencing chosen audio equipment's end sound has not delivered to a particular standard. Across many many people such baggage carried causes various levels of mental unease, or alternatively an unyielding Search for the next Band Aid to cover the Gaping Wound.           

Critical listening is just another aspect of critical thinking. As much as critical thinking has been disparaged as of late it's no wonder some people have this knee jerk reaction to the thought of critical listening. 

I find myself increasingly wary of those that mock critical thinking and distancing myself from them, finding myself the better for it as they are very taxing. Once removed, all their negatives come to fore.

All the best,
Nonoise

I think non-critical listening is what most people do with blue tooth speakers on the patio, Spotify on the soundbar while they are cleaning, and listening to music in the car

@ozzy62 

if you can’t get to the neutral floating ’zen’ state unless you wear headphones out on your deck in the sun, then you have work to do on your system and viewpoint.

no offense intended and i’ll bet you can get there just fine if you think about it.....or  don't think about it. :-)

there is a right time for critical listening. sometimes we need answers. especially to set up a phono cartridge, or dial in speaker or listening position placement. or many more obvious sonic questions. we need to develop the listening skills to understand what we are hearing. have good references. and no reason not to enjoy that part. it's part of the hobby and system development.

but we also need to be able to get away from that type listening and just let the music happen and disconnect too.