Listening Fatigue


What do you guys think contributes more to listening fatigue. Volume, or the type of electronics or speaker you have? thanks
128x128kclone
Of course just as every athlete has their limits of endurance in a given situation, every audiophile has their specific pressure points when it comes to fatigue.

A lot has already been mentioned but in general I would say anything that deviates from your standard listening parameters would cause fatigue. I like to think of this as a bell shaped graph, with the mids being at the apex & so less likely to fall outside a narrower band of acceptability, with bass being more forgiving & the high freqs being out of normal hearing range. Note that this is just an approximation I thought of after I started typing, as everybody doesn't respond to the same stimulus, although I'm making the assumption the mid band would cause more problems for more folks than the other ends of the sonic spectrum. Additionally, I would have to think there are those that cannot tolerate much outside of their system, as they just have gotten so used to their *sound* nothing else can match up. This is not a subtle snub, rather an observation of how we become creatures of habit & in this case in regards to a certain level of sonic reproduction.

I don't care for brightness or harshness & tend to reduce the mid/upper-freqs at the 1-2kHz levels by cutting the signal level -4 to -6 dB but that's just how I prefer to listen. On gear that isn't adjustable I buy/sell until I find what I like best.

With all that, I'd have to say volume only exacerbates the issue of fatigue but doesn't cause it in & by itself and I'd also have to say the electronics contribute more to fatigue, one example being when I heard the same horn spkrs. with different tube electronics, with one application very close to unlistenable for more than 10 minutes. Then again everything but the spkr. was different, so who's to say it was just the amp & not the CDP or TT? It all still qualifies as electronics to me.

Also there's no doubt the room plays a big part but you can mostly bypass that with nearfield listening, which would at least let you know if it was the gear or not causing the problem, if any.
I have found that superior digital component isolation has greatly reduced this dastardly condition in my environment. I have never had this difficulty with my analog reproduction even though I've paid much less attention to vibration management with my TT.
The worst offender causing the ailment of "Listening Fatigue" is the acoustic suspension speaker as designed by Kloss and Allison in the early 1960's and still around today. The scientific reason the resultant sound completely wears me out in less than ten minutes is due to the nature of the acoustic suspension enclosure (completely sealed) that sucks the energy of the amp resulting in 10DB or more loss of acoustic watt db's. The sound is so unatural that the listeners brain MUST then make up for the loss of "Reality" in the produced sound, this overworks the brain during the first few minutes of listening. This overtaxes the acoustic center of the brain (Temporal lobe).The sealed acoustic suspension speaker enclosure is the single WORST audio invention of all time.Although benifiting amp manufactoures who then made 200 watt amps. On the other hand EFFICIENT enclosures (horn and reflex) do the exact opposite and energize my brain. The acoustic suspension enclosure sucks acoustic energy and brain energy(and more dollars for hi watt amps).
Listening to analogue i never get tired,I always wish to hear more even after several hours.I find even with a good digital source I get bored,fatigued,whatever after about one hour.
I think the term "listener fatigue was coined after the introduction of digital playback.
Scott
#1 recording quality or lack of quality actually. If it's recorded correctly there shouldn't be any listener fatigue. the system components also play a large role in this equation also speakers are the hardest component to make fatigue less most speakers simply cannot sound unstressed at real live music levels. those that can are usually big elaborate expensive speakers i.e. Genesis 201 see my system below.stress = 0