In addition to what Tireguy wrote, I also feel that speakers contribute to listening fatigue: If the power output from the drivers is not matched correctly (due to incorrect choice of drivers &/or ill-designed xover) then one or more area of the freq. spectrum will be emphasized. In my experience an accentuated tweeter causes listening fatigue real quickly + for me, excess bass also causes listening fatigue. Now, several listeners like tizzy tweeters & ample bass! I was @ a Radioshack store buying a battery for my wrist watch & a HT system was demo-playing. The shelves in that section of the store were rattling & the bass boom was driving me nuts but the salesman told me "more, the better!". I can only extrapolate what his 2-ch might sound like if he had one!
It is both recording and system related. Really good systems have you turning up the volume with reduced fatigue, so it's not directly related to volume. Sean >
Assuming that the components are of a certain caliber (that statement really needs to be qualified), I'm of the opinion that listener fatigue is primarily the result of poorly designed or no AC line conditioning, poorly designed or no vibration controlling apparatus', no dedicated AC circuits/lines, and poor choices in ics and speaker cables.
One can own the very best components, but without properly addressing each of these other items, one is likely to be doomed for mediocrity and much listener fatigue.
Harshness! It can come from any number of souces. It can be a bad recording, noisy power, poor set-up, any of the various pieces of equipment, cables, etc, or any combination thereof. The lower the total level of harshness, the louder I can play the music and the longer I can listen to it without fatigue. :o)
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