Listener fatigue

Whenever I was troubled by this unpleasant symptom, the cause lay in a thinned out or overemphasized upper midrange or in the treble. Strange, too much bass energy is annoying and calls for immediate remedy, but a faulty voicing in the regions mentioned above, sort of creeps on you and gives you a headache. That's why I used to hate CDs, when they first came out. Just my 2cents.

I remember listening to Elton John records through entry-level Stax headphones back in 70's with just a midfi Marantz receiver. I could listen for hours on end with no fatigue. The exact same recordings in CD now give me a headache after 15 minutes, even with my reference front end and Sen 600's. I think the only thing I liked in the mid 80's (when CD's really began to replace LPs) was those wonderful (but expensive) Mobile Fidelity cassette tapes. I think bright sounding CD's drove many of us from the hobby in the 80's -- kinda like when they replaced my orignal Datsun '77 280Z sports car with a bloated detuned ugliness that didn't get better till the 90's/

It's ironic that the companies (Sony, Phillips) that almost wrecked hi end with those early awful-sounding CD's are now coming to the resuce with SACD. Thank God for SACD DSD recordings -- no more listener fatique. --Lorne

True, Lorne true!

Overemphasized treble has proven hard for me to listen to for long, but I associate listener fatigue most with edgier-than-natural transients etching instruments into their positions, _demanding_ attention from various positions in the soundstage all at once.

Overinvolvement, while exciting at first, becomes exhausting before long. I've noticed a fairly fine line between too much involvement and not enough, but I am personally happier falling asleep while listening than getting wound up, since I mainly listen for relaxation (even to rock). Uninvolvement does not induce relaxation, but neither is exhaustion relaxing.