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Listener fatigue: what does it really mean?

Okay, so I used to think that listener fatigue meant that your ears just kind of got tired from listening to speakers that were overly bright. I don't have a good understanding of the make up of an ear, but I believe there are muscles in an ear that, I guess, expand and contract while we listen to music and I figured that's what it meant to have listener fatigue. Now, I'm thinking that listener fatigue is maybe more than your ears just getting tired but actually, your whole body getting tired and feeling drained. I experienced this time and time again listening to my paradigm studio's. They are somewhat bright and provide quite a bit of detail in my oppinion, so I'm wondering if, since there was such a great amount of detail coming through, that it was physically draining because I'm sitting there analyzing everything that's coming through the speakers. I would wake up and first thing in the morning, grab a cup of coffee and start listening to music (my daily routine) and 20-30 minutes later start nodding off and I couldn't figure out what was going on. I've been sitting here this morning listening to my new vandersteen's for two hours and can't get enough. I feel like I could listen all day and that I'm almost energized from listening vs. drained.

Soooo, what are your oppinions about what listener fatigue is and why it's caused?
b_limo
tom6897's avatar
tom6897
1,484 posts
 
You have the right idea and are on the correct path.

The most common denominator for me is that the system does not sound natural, involving and lacks emotion/feeling.
There are many adjectives used to describe a system that can lead to fatigue, Among them: bright, harsh, lean, clinical, analytical, forward, cool/cold, sterile, un-emotional, tipped up, Hi-Fi.

When you find yourself listening for a system to do all the "Audiophile Gymnastics" it is already too late. Emotion and musicality to me should be first and foremost. Either you are listening to MUSIC or your EQUIPMENT. The equipment needs to be a window that is transparent and allows the musics to flow through it without being artificial.
brauser
529 posts
 
Listener fatigue can be brought on in a number of ways. Here's a couple of common ones. 1) Overdrive your system by turning the volume up just a little bit too high. Most systems have a threshold volume level that is comfortable from which even a modest increase will introduce an annoying effect that reduces the pleasure of the experience to some degree. 2) Incorporating system elements that move the system to the bright side of neutral. I recall some years ago trying out a new pure silver interconnect. Nothing against silver, but this particular one was great in capturing detail but also added a hardness to the sound that I just couldn't handle.

Being involved in this hobby for over 40 years now I've seen a lot of system elements come and go. The one thing that I will not tolerate is Listener Fatigue.
learsfool
1,215 posts
 
I would second Brauser's suggestion that you may simply have the volume up too high. A great many audiophiles love to listen at a very high volume level, which will definitely lead to listening fatigue much quicker than listening at reasonable levels. I posted a thread several months back about volume levels and hearing loss, you might want to search for that under my moniker and check it out.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
Soooo, what are your oppinions about what listener fatigue is and why it's caused?

I feel listening fatigue is a mental and/or emotional sense of being, not so much a physical issue with the ears. I find it most commonly occurs with me when my system has taken a turn towards a more resolving, clinical, analytical type of sound. Detail, detail everywhere, mental stimulation overload leads me towards shorter and shorter listening sessions. Sometimes leading me to not firing up the rig at all. The mind is burning up trying to take in all of this information and detail.

The cure is to remove the gear, cables, etc. that led to this hyper-detail sound in the first place and replace them with more musical pieces.
b_limo's avatar
b_limo OP
2,289 posts
 
It's funny that I think I might be a detail freak. I love detail, but I'm not so sure that I prefer "dry" and "clinical" and I think that's actually slightly what I have. I think Jmcgrogan hit the nail on the head when he said that it's stimulation overload that sometimes leads to listener fatigue.

So this leads me to another question: can you have all the "juicy" detail, and yet have a warm sound too? I really enjoy pinpoint imaging and detail but I'm wondering now if a "musical" sound backs off the detail and pinpoint imaging that I've grown to love. I see how people can collect enough gear for two or three nice systems and end up keeping it all. It's like having the truck for camping, the sports car for track days and canyon carving, and then the luxury seden for cruising.
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