I think the fact that people hear sound differently is interesting, but has anyone else wondered just how discerning their ears are or whether their music listening skills could be improved?
This morning, while reading the Sunday paper, I had a classical concert on that was on INHD. I DVR'd it a couple of weeks ago, because I want to try to teach my hearing to be a bit more discriminatory. When many instruments in an orchestra are playing at the same time, I can't aurally separate them and wonder if others can. Yes, during quieter moments I have no problem, but when everyone is playing at the same time, I think they could remove the whole string section and I might not notice it over the horn section and the kettle drums and everything else! I thought that having the "visuals" of the various instruments would help me to learn to discriminate them a bit better.
I wonder if:
A- I don't physically hear as well as others. I did have my hearing tested a couple of years ago and everything was fine. Yes, that was a couple of years ago, but I don't believe it's worsened since then and I noted this problem five years ago. Maybe, despite hearing tones at the doctor's office OK, too many years of cranking Ted Nugent has caused some damage that involves "discernation"?
B-I'm just not a disciplined listener. Maybe I don't know classical well enough to be completely familiar with each of the instruments?
C-Sometimes I swear I have "listening ADD". I really can't seem to just sit and listen to a CD anymore. Is it because I always have 100 things to do at any given time and my attention span has necessarily become the same as a gnats? Note above how I was reading the Sunday paper while watching the concert…
D-Maybe my equipment/room is not up to snuff. OK, I feel confident in my Axioms and Denon receiver, but maybe close reflections in my small room are smearing the sound and causing problems?
So……
1- Has anyone ever had the privilege of hearing a really, really nice system in a room that is very good acoustically? I know that because of the snobbery often encountered and the fact that my wallet would never allow such purchases anyway (and therefore I'd be wasting a salesman's' time) I've never had the opportunity to listen to a $100,000 reference system at some really high end dealer. I can't help but wonder just how much better it sounds than what I'm used to…..
2- Has anyone (particularly those of you with "room problems" such as myself) ever had the opportunity to just haul your speakers and electronics to a "good" room to hear them? Ever since I've gotten my Axioms, I've had the desire to go rent a good sized meeting room in a hotel for three hours and just listen to the speakers in a room with carpeting and no nearby sidewalls!
3- Is anyone familiar with a "music listening" course? This might sound strange, but let me explain: I spend a fair amount on various software training series sets on DVD to learn much of the software that I use in my business. For me, a $250 set of DVDs that offers me 20 hours of expert training in some deep software app is well worth it. Likewise, if there was a CD or DVD training series of "exercises" in hearing, I think it would be well worth one or two hundred dollars to substantially help me to enjoy active listening to music more often.
On the other side of the coin, I might be better served to leave things as they are before I feel compulsions to buy higher levels of equipment or accessories to tweak the sound?
I guess, in short: How many of you "actively" listen to sound for long periods as opposed to having your system on while multitasking? How many remain motionless in the sweet spot? How many wonder if they're not hearing everything their system offers or wonder if their exact system would sound so much better/worse if it was in a completely different environment?
