good listening/bad listening

[jtwrace]

I posted this question on Audiogon and thought I would ask it here.

Do you ever listen to your system and say WOW that is great? It really sounds excellent.

Then, other days you say, ehh why does it sound like that...I don't remember it soundin like that?

So, my question is, is this physcoacoustics or.....???????

Here is the link to the audiogon post:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ymisc&1203204613&read&3&4&

 

[slowGEEZR]

There is no doubt in my mind that your mental/physical state has an enormous impact on how your listening is perceived.

 

[Brad225]

That is interesting you should mention that. From my extensive research that generally happens to people that abandon their ML's.

Just kidding, kind of, a little, sort of, maybe, I think.

 

[twich54]

Agreed, if I can't allow myself to relax and unwind (that's why Martini's were invented !), then I'm better of just letting the music serve as a "background source".

 

[TomD]

That experience is so in tune to mine, and i thought that I was he only one! I think that some of it is due to the recording. There is no doubt that some recordings just sound better than others. Sometimes i attribute it to humidity, or the alignment of the planets, or just anything. Sometimes I think that I am just getting used to the incredible ML sound, which was once new and now becoming common place. Then the purity of the sound overwhelms me again and I am completely satisfied. I wonder if i am being overly greedy for better sound, and want to experience that "new" ML sound once more, therefore becoming more critical. This quest for sound is definitely driving me to acquire better equipment so any possible inferior sound, imagined or real, is absolutely minimized.

In any case, I am grateful to be experiencing such fine sound. Perhaps knowing the possibilities, as witnessed by the system postings on this group:bowdown:, causes some psychosomatic response that is telling me just how inferior my system really is.

But right now I don't care and if you will please excuse me, I need to leave to do some listening:rocker:.

 

[amey01]

I posted a thread just recently in the "Polls" section about night time listening.

Let me guess - most of your "Good" listening sessions are at night and most of your "bad" ones are in the morning? I think my system sounds a whole lot better at night, possibly due to the human ear taking over from the eye as the primary sense when it is dark. As a result, hearing is more acute and discriminatory.

But who knows - there are a whole lot of other explanations such as clean power supply/dirty power supply, extraneous vibrations (from traffic, construction, people in your house, etc.) and many many others, most of which we have no idea about here in 2008.

But the answer to your question is "yes" - sometimes my system sounds great and other times it doesn't - it is probably a combination of psychoacoustics and real physical reasons why.

 

[Craig]

I found a few things to be consistent.

- It always sounds better at night. The lower the lighting the better imaging and soundstage. It must be the glow of colored leds, blue flourescent displays, incandescent orange from the tubes and of course the blue M or single red led from the speakers all add to the ambiance.

- It always sounds great after you've been away from the system for at least a few days.

- It always sounds good after coming home after listening to system in a store. Whether they have better gear or not. The nicest audio store I ever saw as one in Thailand. The had a lot of exotic gear usually only seen in magazine audio reviews including a complete MBL system. It was gorgeous but nothing was wired up. They certainly have the equipment but it usually is not optimally setup or is always in a state of flux. The system at Acoustic Sounds from our ML tour last summer was the best store system I ever heard. They went to great effort and expense to refine that entire room and setup the system.

- It always sounds most amazing when your listening alone and no one else is around to confirm how great its sounding.

 

[JonFo]

Interesting topic, and one that brings me to ask this question as well:

If you have a noticeable difference in perceived sound qualities in a system you know well, and that has not changed, then how can we even begin to compare to a system we do not know in a room we’re not familiar with?

On a macro level, sure, it’s easy to tell a good system from a bad one. But subtle differences are tricky. I think our auditory memory is pretty slippery.


For me, my system sounds best when I’ve been away for a few days. It always floors me just how good it is.

Also, time of day has very little to do with enjoyment level for me. Some of my favorite sessions are Saturday and Sunday mornings.

 

[benleeys]

-- It always sounds great after you've been away from the system for at least a few days.

For me, my system sounds best when I’ve been away for a few days. It always floors me just how good it is.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. :music::music:

 

[Beakman]

All the above concerning our senses, plus a few observations -
listening on lesser equipment, i.e. car stereo or iPod, helps clean the aural pallette, as well as listening to different genres of music (a recording studio trick to keep everything "fresh").
Listening to previously unheard or not heard in a long time material just sounds better, BUT at the same time . . .(I'll explain later);
Medications affect hearing. Those of you who are fellow ALIEVE addicts should know this. Ambien is the worst for induced titinitus.
Memory can work against you - It is a proven fact that memories of a specific incident alter and degrade over time. Aural memories are no exception and I have found many, many times that digging out music I haven't listened to in a long time doesn't have the same qualities and detail of the "enhanced" version in my head.
Also related, the brain is a great compensator and filter. For an example, visually, you will notice that looking at a house with the TV on inside the room is bathed in blue light. The TV is indeed blue dominant, but for the constant viewer the brain is adjusting for balance what the eye receives and evens out the PERCEPTION of all the colors. I don't believe it is any different for auditory stimulae, which is why lesser equipment, or especially with audiophiles, different equipment, is truly an aquired taste and given standards are widely controversial. This condition is probably the onus for seeking out equipment that has the purest through-put possible.

 

[treitz3]

Some of it may have to do with the electrical grid and how much of a load and demand there is. This is not only for your household, but the area [city] you live in as well. The more power that is available for the system to draw, the better the system will sound.

 

[timm]

I posted this question on Audiogon and thought I would ask it here.

Do you ever listen to your system and say WOW that is great? It really sounds excellent.

Then, other days you say, ehh why does it sound like that...I don't remember it soundin like that?

So, my question is, is this physcoacoustics or.....???????

Here is the link to the audiogon post:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ymisc&1203204613&read&3&4&

yeah, I have found just about what everyone else says is true... But, in my case - it usually boils down to the recording. I have certain recordings that sound terrible - but sometimes I want to listen... and then my system sounds like junk. If I put in another recording - then things sound fine again. But, I have had times when things sound perfect...usually at night.... I find slight variances to my good recordings - and the differences are not big - but just the same - are there at different times.

I moved my tv out from the center to reduce reflections - and these 'bad times' did not seem to come around. I also lifted the speaker cable - and that seemed to reduce these 'bad times'.

 

[ralflar]

When I still got "things to do" during the day I tend to be too restless to really enjoy the music. The end of the day is definitely best for me.

 

[amey01]

Interesting the comment about memory - of course, a note on its own is not music. Music is based on our memory of all the preceeding notes and combinations and sequence.

Of course, that could directly affect enjoyment.

So if your mind is not on the task (listening) and your memory is not up to the task of remembering the preceedind sequence then enjoyment is giong to go down.