While were at it and FWIW, I may as well bring up yet one more variable to consider. And another admittedly intractable one, at that. This one often either goes unnoticed or un-discussed. But, let me start by saying I, too, believe in break in and acclimatization as well, but I most certainly welcome any attempts to experiment objectively, or even subjectively for that matter. Doug, you describe in your very commendable article that you and David were
listening critically, focused on the songs in a hyper-attentive way. While I do find nothing particularly wrong with this per se, it did strike me as conceivably inconclusive. Like we all have, Im sure, I have certainly had innumerous listening sessions in just this state of mind, naturally, and, as well, a wide range of other states including those on the opposite side of the spectrum, where I may be only unconcernedly paying attention, if at all, or otherwise engaged in the music, but just plain relaxed, emotionally off guard and letting myself hear it all without any notable expectations. And I reckon, as audiophiles, we all almost certainly have done that too. But, over the years I have noticed again and again, that I tend to catch various, subtle essences of sound that had escaped my earlier attentions, perhaps many times, or even in fact for a long time, more often when my guard was down and my relative level of anticipatory anxiety seemed at or near its lowest ebb. Maybe thats a case of the perception coming to me, rather than I trying to go to it, but in practice I find the event cannot be forced, only arrived at. But, it goes without saying that all of us live with our systems over the long term, and, I think thats how we in turn get to know how we ourselves respond and react to them under various emotional states or moods.
But, remembering my college anatomy and physiology classes, Im convinced the above actually has a basis in (among other things) physiology and that it can sometimes (and more often than one might think) relate in particular to the scientifically well-understood fight-or-flight response. That is said to happen when anticipatory feelings of uncertainty, excitement, or anxiety trigger the release of adrenaline. We usually only think of it in terms of being conscious of feeling its effects, but in truth this feedback system, between the brain (the feedback monitor and regulator), the endocrine system, as well as a few other bodily systems, is in truth always on just perpetually in a varying degree of regulation. The adrenaline is controlled and released in our waking state literally on a moment-by-moment basis, all day, every day.
But, heres the thing, if I understand it right and if I can manage to do the concept any justice: what I also believe is happening in this response is that the brain is also playing some additional roles in this in that, in effect and to a degree, it begins subtly suppressing, or filtering out, sensory perception in our consciousness. Mainly this is a survival mechanism, which in effect may be an evolutionary advantage to help keep us from losing the initiative (both in terms of instinctual decision making and in terms of the differing brain functions that facilitate it) of our brains being able to suddenly process a dramatically swift and near-global shift in our state of consciousness from, say (among perhaps many other examples), the state of our deep and extended (read: relaxed and open) involvement with our connection to our immediate environment or surroundings to that of the brain actively controlling and preparing virtually our entire body for possible, all-out war the moment of the impending fight-or-flight decision. One reason for the brain shifting our consciousness away from our senses somewhat is the same for that of shifting away from other bodily functions or processes, like digestion, sleep initiation or cell repair. At a time like this, these functions (and how readily you can closely examine that pretty rose blossom up close and ad mire it for its pleasing qualities) are no longer exactly a high priority. Much better for the brain to focus on things like heart- and breathing-rates, adrenaline levels and constricting the diameter of blood vessels that lie close to the surface of the skin, particularly in the extremities (vasoconstriction), etc.
But, perhaps another reason for the brain to curtail our sensory perception, as well as raise the adrenaline, heart-rate, breathing and all the rest, is, in fact, just what all that does to our conscious thinking, of course. All that may actually be the last thing that we wanted at the moment, most likely, but it is there to pull the rug out from under us - literally provoke us into action and jolt us out of our complacency, not necessarily into making the decision of whether or not to fight or flee, but simply into investigating for ourselves whether or not either would be warranted. You see, in all of this the brain itself is simply blind. Its role is just that of a sensor and a simple, stoopid, if you will, alarm bell that is going off all the time and we are continually placed in the position of determining whether the warning its giving us warranted or not. Whenever we are involved with the act of that determination we are literally satisfying our instinct for survival. It does indeed alert us to real dangers, we just have to possibly put up with a lot of false alarms. And its hardwired into us. It will work even when weve just woken up, or have just eaten a big meal, or are getting ready for bed or are having a bad day
or are at the supermarket, or our childrens little league
or, even when evaluating a hifi. Or, anymore, it would seem. What happened to all our ancestors who werent there the day they handed out physiological feedback systems like this one, or those that would rather have gone on smelling the roses despite the rising internal chaos?? They must have made for fatter Saber Tooth Tigers. Its just something that we simply picked up early and often in our evolutionary history and, in fact, have never lost.
Such a phenomenon can be said to influence auditory perception. Sometimes this discussion falls under the realm of psychoacoustics, but I myself understand that angle less well. The effects of the fight-or-flight response may actually conspire to hit audiophiles at precisely the wrong moment at the very moment we may feel we have indeed reached the moment of truth following some manner of endeavor or preparation. Ironically its our own level of passion that we bring with us into the equation (and our perceived struggles, labor and frustrations toward an anticipated goal) that can end up betraying us raising our excitement level and anticipatory anxiety at just the moment in which, likely as not, more passive, unconcerned attention might have served us better. The result?? We can, and sometimes do, miss things sometimes even what we might, upon perceiving it subsequently after something closer to homeostasis has returned, regard as more or less of a revelation. The fight or flight response can even be triggered to a degree by a memory. And then there is genetics. Through variation, we dont all have the same hair color and we dont all have exactly the same level of susceptibility to this response to a given stimulus. We may *think* we have an idea of how susceptible we are, but we cannot know. But, we are all human and we all have this trait to one degree or another. No shame in it, of course. It appears to simply be how evolution has wired us. I do not see in it necessarily any sort of psychological failing on the part of an observer. I suppose, somebody somewhere could wish to attempt to explain it in those terms, but not me.
So, to me its not so much a rush to judgment on the part of you and David that you didnt hear a difference (even if you might have expected to hear one), so much as I think it may just be a matter of recognizing the necessity of giving mother-nature her due in this. But, overall, I expect this is how most audiophiles come to terms with break in (if real) intermittently, over the long haul and under a variety of different moods or states. I will say, that what has been somewhat helpful for me is to take the occasion now and again to try to take a few moments and attempt to relax first somewhat, before listening, rather than as a result of listening. That and to give myself an adequate block of time to allow for as much of an unhurried listening stint as can be managed and the deliberate decision to not draw any hard and fast conclusions about my perceptions until Ive logged a few sessions, not back to back, but separated by at least a few days. But, if, or how, you may end up wanting to consider any of this (if at all) for factoring into any future experiments you may be considering, I will willingly concede those designs to you. I, too, applaud your efforts and wish you continued success. Sorry for the stoopid-long post, everybody. Cheers!
John
