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?

This is probably not helpful, but I've got the same quasi (but probably not) ADD thing. I cannot sit and listen to music and only do that. Tried, failed. That also goes for other things. It seems I always need to be doing 2 things at once. Unfortunately, I'm not good at doing 2 things at once...

As far as classical goes, I can sometimes pick out the instruments. It's something I actively try to do when listening to rock, so much so that it's not really active any more, just automatic. I couldn't tell you how I learned to do it, though.

Mark,
I think that most of us don't really have the time to just sit down and actually listen to a cd. The last time I did that was when my M60's arrived last September. Most of the time I am busy helping my wife out with our young son, doing household chores etc. Some of us lead pretty busy lives. The only time I really sit and listen to cd's is reading the paper or watching a DVD movie or concert video. I am very seldom in the sweat spot when it comes to listening to music.
I have always had a pretty good ear for music. I played drums when I was younger and developed an appreciation for all styles of music. My father played drums in his youth and loved jazz. My parents took me to see Buddy Rich when I was 12 years old. I still have the autographed photo and a pair of his sticks! A music listening course might be worthwhile. Generally speaking, some people just hear the music where others can actually pick out the exact instrument. Fortunately, I am able to pick out most instruments in a recording but not all.
Cheers,
Shaun

Wow !
It really surprises me that you guys cant just sit and listen to a cd.
I find that when I put a cd in that I really like, I end up in the "sweet spot" with eyes closed, trying to catch every detail that I can.(more since I got Axioms than ever before)
However, I have been accused by my mother and girlfriend of having VERY selective hearing.

Mark,

I've heard arrays of reference speakers professionally balanced and placed in recording studios and radio engineering rooms. It really helps in hearing exactly what's going out on the air (without adding in effects, exaggerated bass, etc) but sadly, it doesn't help me pick out orchestral instruments. I don't have much trouble picking out different guitars in a rock situation, but that's mostly because it's my prefered musical choice. I understand the draw to classical, I just don't share in it.

As for actively listening - not in the least. If I'm listening critically in a mixdown environment, then yes (and even then I take "smoke breaks" every 20 minutes or so to "cleanse my ear pallette")... but as for listening while doing other work, no, I'll be waiting for a favorite song on a disc and completely miss that it was even played.

Bren R.

Bray,
I used to be able to sit and listen to a cd in it's entirety in my "single" days when I was master of my domain! Life has changed with marriage and child. I wouldn't change my life style now, I am busy, but very happy! Sometimes I will make a point of sitting and listening to a certain song when I have time...

I used to put headphones on and listen to three or four Hendrix albums in a row. I loved it; I could lose myself and feel every note.

Now, I get three songs into a CD and my mind is wandering. Like Bray said, I'll put on a CD while I'm working and then not hear any of it. I wonder if an incredibly short attention span is much more common now than 20 years ago with today's busy lifestyles?

The other point made here is a simple difference in priorities. Now that you have many and complex responsibilities, how many minutes go by where you aren't thinking about SOMETHING.

We should also consider the effect age has on the listening piece. Not as easy to "lose yourself" like you used to.

I guess in all fairness,if I were married with children it WOULD be a different story. I'm sure the trade offs of having a wife and children are well worth missing out on some tunes.
Maybe someday.

As much as I hate to admit it, I do crosswords while I listen to music. I can't just do nothing and listen to music. And if I close my eyes and try to get into it, I fall asleep. At least with the crosswords, I'm actively doing something that doesn't require a great amount of concentration. In this way, the music listening is the primary function, and the crossword is the secondary. I guess it just gives me an excuse to sit down and enjoy music. After spending money on all this stuff, I better make the time to use it. It helps that I'm single, too.

Ok, guys, or at least bray, may I have permission to use this post as my own with the following changes:

Instead of "Mother and Girlfriend" it's "Wife and Grandkids" And when my Wife saw the Axiom "Golden Girl" and asked about her meaning, she suggested that I Too, have "Golden Ears" (Her comment)

I Don't Think She Was Paying Me A Complement!!

I'm one of the "dim the lights, sit in the sweet spot and do nothing else" guys. If I want background noise, I'll fire up MusicMatch and let it run. But if I'm listening to my Axioms, then dammit, I'm listening to my Axioms. And yeah, I have the luxury of being a single guy and master of my domain.

I mainly sit in the sweet spot when I listen to music.I don't get to do this as much as I would like though.I do most of my listening when I can be home alone.

Hey Mark:
I’m a self-diagnose ADD’er ... know what ,you seem to have the symptoms as well: multitasking and hyperfocusing.(hyperfocusing: I infer that from the amount of data on most of your posts )

I study cello when I was a kid and spent most of my teen years playing on strings and full orchestras.
In order to be able to distinguish instruments in a full orchestra you first needs to ,of course, familiarize yourself with each instrument sound charasterisics then, and more importantly, how each section of the orchestra sounds ( Strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion) . I suggest you to get some chamber music compositions to learn each instrument, then move to non-chamber music but stay exclusively with each section ( strings, brass, woodwinds), this will train your ear on how each section sounds. For instance, a single French horn sound is quite different to 5-6 French horns playing in a brass section on a concert hall, which btw, the concert hall play a huge part in their sound. You’ll need to spend extra time with the woodwind section, they had the most instruments and some sound very similar. Their timbre is not bright so they usually get buried in a full orchestra.

I agree with what JaimeG said. You need to be familiar with the individual instuments in an orchestra before you can pick each one out individually.

I grew up in a home where my parents played classical music pretty much 99% of the time. My mom told me that before I was 5, I would pick out a certain group of instruments in a piece I was hearing and hum along, even it wasn't the melody.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it helps to have been 'steeped' in it. I'm still pretty good at filtering the music from an orchestra or ensemble and listing with fairly good accuracy which instuments are in the mix.

Quick answer :

1. You can fix your attention problem by putting all the coffee and expresso machines in the garage for a couple of weeks. The headaches will go away eventually.

2. I have had a number of chances to listen to a good stereo (>$25k, well spent) in a well designed and treated room and the sound was still way better than anything I hear today. The thing that pleases me is that I think I have speakers that are up to the task now (based on how their sound changes as I optimize placement for different aspects) so I just need the right room. Having said that, I think the sound in my current room is good enough that it does not significantly interfere with my ability to HEAR different instruments, but I know it could sound even better if I had time to work on the room some more. Since I hope to be moving in 6 months that's not a priority though.

3. I do sit motionless in the sweet spot whenever possible; it's just that I have much less time for that now than I did 20 years ago.

4. IMO the most important thing for good hearing is having time to let the music "soak into you". The real joys of listening to good music don't come from individual instruments, they come from the more subtle interplay between sections of an orchestra, banks of instruments "coming together" then diverging etc...

You can't hear that stuff unless you are totally focussed on the music, and it's hard to totally focus on the music if you are juggling too many things in life. You don't NEED drugs to listen well but they sure did help you focus on one thing at a time

I'm told it's the same thing with astronomy. If you practice observing and stay practiced you can see far more than a novice observer even if their eyes are better than yours. It does take time -- the critical thing is training your brain re: what to look for -- and it does take practice to stay current.

I find if I set aside a couple of hours a week for listening, at a regular time, that some of this starts to come back. Otherwise, I have "the attention span of a gnat" as I have been told on several occasions.

Maybe upgrading to M80s would help

In reply to:

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You don't NEED drugs to listen well but they sure did help you focus on one thing at a time

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You know, now that you mention it John, that reminds me that there was another huge variable between listening to Hendrix then and anything else now!

I guess the good news about "now" is that I don't have to bake a tube of those Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies to take care of the munchies!