What exactly is critical listening? Who does it?

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.

@mikelavigne 

I am in for what you wrote above. There is a time for Critical listening and a time for just relax and enjoy, knowing that what you hear is the best you can get out of for system. 

Anyone here practice meditation like mindfulness. If you nearly empty your mind and experience music... well, that is the opposite of critical listening. That is experiencing music. 

So, with that as a baseline, critical listening can be concentrating ones minds on the performance or the system. 

Critical thinking and analytical thinking are being conflated here. I like the analogy to critical thinking, this should be a stimulating, intense exercise. Lets think about a critique, a critique doesn't have to be judgemental, it can be simple appreciation. That's how I listen during my relatively long listening sessions, I'm simply appreciating both the performance of musicians and the qualities of sound from both the recording and my system. 

Now analysis is when one enters the judgemental mode. we are intentionally analyzing both the performance and sound quality, Analysis is inherently comparative as we  need to have some reference for this analysis. This is the mode of listening which finds fault, cognitive dissonance and unhappiness easily arise here. 

As for listening for sheer musical enjoyment, I only go here with far lesser audio systems where I need to avoid listening to sound quality since it would only cause unhappiness. 

I too don't understand this seemingly increasing dismissiveness or negative connotations  towards the critical. To engage in critical thinking or listening should be a highly stimulating, enjoyable, consciousness and curiosity raising activity.