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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?
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jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
03-26-13: Mapman
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jjrenman
279 posts
 
Ears actually start to hurt. For me listener fatique has to do with how much information (distortion etc) that my ear/brain has to eliminate so that I can enjoy the music. A good example would be excessive volume which for me was to bring up the subleties in the music that were difficult to hear. I have found that the better the system the lower the volume I can play it at as I no longer had to turn it up to hear all of the subleties that make music enjoyable. The opposite example would be the crappy speakers in some TV's that you keep turning up to get an intelligible sound but you still end up straining to understand what is being said.
csontos
1,311 posts
 
B, anyone who thinks they can't have serious detail and musicality at the same time is at the very least, confused. Do you really think moving up the HI-FI scale doesn't include an escalation in detail? They absolutely do go hand in hand. If it's not musical, then performance is lacking. Having to "imagine" lost detail has to be the most fatiguing circumstance of all. Cold clinical detail is typically a result of huge amounts of NFB applied in order to reduce distortion. You definitely can have your cake and eat it too. You just have to find the right one. Cost is not a factor either. Imo, the word 'warm' should be forever banned from audiophile circles. You go from 'cold' to 'natural'. Warm is not desirable.
sonicbeauty
324 posts
 
Let me be perfectly frank and repeat what I have previously written numerous times before:

Whether your are listening to an ear-bleeding boom-box or a mega-dollar high-end system, they all sound pretty good after 3 glasses of wine - and listener fatigue will be a non-issue!

Honesty, listening fatigue came, as it used to be for me, from ''analyzing'' sounds (you know, the ''air'' around the instruments) instead of freely listening to the performance and enjoying the artist.

Once you free yourself of this, the listening fatigue factor is no factor at all. Easy to say, not easy to do, however.
csontos
1,311 posts
 
Well that statement sheds some light on some of you guys' expectations. Free yourself indeed! What makes you think you can glean more out of a recording than what's there? It's only "information". Once you've retrieved it, it's all there is and there ain't no more. The secret is knowing when you've gotten it all. And it is possible to know. You poor sods. No wonder you're spending more on wires and cables than gear.
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